Australian shares are set to drop at the open following a broad based sell off on Wall Street on Friday. US stocks dropped sharply at the end of last week, following a roller coaster few days. A weaker than expected jobs report and simmering US-China trade tensions rattled investors, with the Dow tumbling more than 500 points. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent company, Alphabet led the way lower. Shares in Apple dropped 3.6 per cent erasing its gains for the year. For the week the major US indexes all dropped more than 4 per cent.
On the commodities front, the oil price has jumped after OPEC and its allies agreed to slash production for the first six months of 2019.
US economic newsNon-farm payrolls (employment) rose by 155,000 in November. Economists expected a gain of 198,000 jobs. Wage growth also missed estimates.
Local economic newsToday the ABS releases the Housing finance figures, while on Tuesday the Residential price indexes for the September Quarter are due, and, on Wednesday the ABS Lending finance figures will be released.
MarketsWall Street closed lower on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.2 per cent to 24 389 the S&P 500 shed 2.3 per cent to close at 2633 and the NASDAQ lost 3.1 per cent to close at 6969.
European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE gained 1.1 per cent, Paris rose 0.7 per cent and Frankfurt dropped 0.2 per cent.
Asian markets were also mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.4 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.03 per cent.
Locally, the SPI futures pointing to a fall of 30 points. On Friday the Australian share market closed 24 points higher to 5681.
Company news Cloud and telco business, Inabox
(ASX:IAB) has agreed to MNF Group’s
(ASX:MNF) takeover bid after shareholders voted in favour of its recently revised $34.5 million offer. MNF’s board says shareholders voted “resoundingly” in favour of divesting Inabox’s remaining businesses, which was the only condition required to approve MNF Group’s acquisition offer. MNF Group last traded at $3.80
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying 71.84 US cents, 56.57 Pence Sterling, 80.85 Yen and 63.09 Euro cents.
CommoditiesIron ore futures are eyeing a gain of 0.4 per cent
Gold has gained $9.00 to US$1253 an ounce.
Silver is 19 cents higher at US$14.70 an ounce.
Oil has gained $1.12 to US$52.61 a barrel.
