The Australian market is about to be barraged with a very harsh slide on Wall Street from Friday, where surprising jobs data and falling unemployment figures jolted the January rally into a deep red decline across all sectors.
The S&P 500 lost 1.54% last Friday, while the Dow Jones trimmed 1.6%; the U.S. indices are now only up around 0.8% since Donald Trump’s election victory.
In 2016, the “Trump bump” kept U.S. markets trucking as much as 6.2% higher.
The ASX 200 futures are now tipping a 71-point drop for the local bourse, to be down around 0.86% at open; a decline compounded by the fact the Aussie dollar is taking a beating.
Things may stay quite red through Monday too with China’s trade balance to be reported at 2PM AEDT. That GDP data should soon show imports dropping 1.5% while exports have bounced 7.3% higher. This Market Online writer can only imagine the words ‘economic weakness’ will be thrown around.
Back home, Star Entertainment Group’s (ASX:SGR) slow-motion blow-up seems to be stretching into this week with the gov’t warning it won’t help things. The Star collapsing would be the first Oz casino crash since late 1998.
The takeover saga around Insignia (ASX:IFL) rolls on too – while the Brookfield approach reported last week likely never happened, it looks like Bain Capital will now match leading sutor CC Capital’s $2.9 billion bid today.
Lithium producer Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) has produced its first battery-quality lithium at CLEOP, its downstream optimisation plant in Germany.
Pacific Edge (ASX:PEB) is bracing for a downturn in share price after Novitas, its U.S. Medicare Administrative Contractor, scrapped Cxbladder test reimbursements.
Later this week we’ll also get some key Aussie data: By 11.30AM Thursday, the ABS will have reported key numbers on unemployment through December.
Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 61.4 US cents – its lowest since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 – after an 0.8% drop.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has moved 0.3% higher to $97.35 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $79.46,
Gold is trading at $2,716 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures are up again at $3.98 per gigajoule; the commodity’s highest sale price since late in December 2022 when it first dropped under $4.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.