Australian shares are set to drop at the open as increasing trade tensions between the US and its key trade partners keep Wall Street on edge. US stocks kicked off the week on a sour note after the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump plans to bar several Chinese companies from making investments in U.S. tech.
The Dow dropped 328 points, with Boeing and Intel among the biggest decliners in the index. It did see a slight rebound in the last hour of trade after Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser to President Trump, said that investment restrictions against China and other countries are not immediately forthcoming and that the market was overreacting.
Harley-Davidson shares fell about 6 percent after the company announced it will shift production of motorcycles headed for Europe to factories outside the U.S. The European Union is the company’s second largest export market, after the America.
Gold hovered near last week's six-month low on Monday as investors flocked to U.S. Treasuries rather than bullion, amid concerns over a global trade war.
Prices for U.S. government bonds rose, pushing yields lower, with investors preferring safe haven assets to stocks.
MarketsWall Street closed lower yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session 1.3 per cent lower to close at 24,253, the S&P 500 lost 1.4 per cent to close at 2,717 and the NASDAQ dropped 2.1 per cent to close at 7532.
European markets closed lower yesterday: London’s FTSE dropped 2.2 per cent, Paris fell 1.9 per cent and Frankfurt dropped 2.5 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower yesterday, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.3 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 1.1 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 57 pts loss. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index losing 15 points to close at 6210.
Company newsInvestment and superannuation company HUB24
(ASX:HUB) has announced its expecting to deliver underlying earnings (EBITDA) of about 11.8 million for the 2018 fiscal year. The company says funds under administration are now at $8.3 billion.
HUB24’s shares popped 3 per cent earlier this month after the company announced that wealth management firm Fitzpatricks Private Wealth selected HUb24 as its technology partner.
However the company says it expected to deliver lower than expected IT Services revenue as a result of the strategic focus on the Fitzpatrick agreement.
Shares in HUB24
(ASX:HUB) are currently trading at 5 year highs and closed 1.2 per cent lower to $13.19 yesterday.
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US74.17 cents, 55.87 Pence Sterling, 81.40 Yen and 63.41 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to 0.1 per cent loss.
Gold has dropped $3.40 to $US1267 an ounce.
Silver has fallen 14c to $US16.40 an ounce.
Oil was down 39c to $US68.19 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has gained 1.1 per cent to US$6,257, Ethereum has added 0.5 per cent to US$460 and EOS has risen 0.03 per cent to US$8.18.
