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Australian shares are climbing as much as 0.5% higher in ASX 200 futures this morning, with traders to be greeted by a 40-point hike when the bourse bell rings on Tuesday – though all eyes will be on later this evening for the budget.
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That’s Week 13’s big one: Jim Chalmers shares his fourth budget this evening.
Chalmers is expected to take the stance that things are better now under Labor “than the last two big Liberal deficits” – and far better than the COVID-19 years.
Gross debt for this financial year is tipped to be $940 billion (around $70 billion less than the forecast in 2022) while debt will tip over $1 trillion next financial year. Perhaps most importantly, this budget is back in the red too.
All the juicy data hits the internet at 7.30pm tonight; Chalmers speaks before that at 7pm.
Before we get to the budget though, markets seem to be steadying after Trump suggested his long-threatened auto and pharma tariffs would be coming “soon” – but probably not on April 2 like he’s been saying for some time.
Much of his sentiment seems to be changing, with the U.S. President claiming he’d “give a lot of countries breaks” as he thinks about changes to his levy campaign.
Other news that may impact the bourse today includes the Bank of Japan’s latest policy meeting, though that comes quite late this evening, as well as home sales and consumer confidence reports from the U.S. (also tonight).
Brad Jones, the RBA’s assistant governor, is speaking in Sydney at 10am today too.
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Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 62.8 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has added 2.4% to sell at $102.35 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $73.07,
Gold is trading at $3,023 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures slipped to $3.91 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.
