Local Markets Commentary

The Australian market commences today’s trade on largely negative international equities leads, but overnight price gains for most key commodities

US gold futures settled almost flat, but oil and iron ore swung higher, and LME copper extended Friday’s gain.

The $A was pushed lower, after briefly rising beyond US79.60c early yesterday evening.

Locally pre-trade, a weekly consumer sentiment report is due.

Overseas Market Commentary

Major European and US equities markets trade vacillated and diverged as investors digested corporate earnings and economic indicator updates, ahead of key reports and a US Federal Reserve meeting yet to come this week.

An initial July manufacturing PMI for the euro zone came in at 55.8, against expectations of 56.2. While nonetheless robust, the reading was the lowest in six months, and hence represented a growth slowdown.

In the US, Markit initially estimated the July composite PMI at a 53.2 four-month peak, up 1.2 points from June.

June existing home sales were reported 1.8% lower.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) adjusted its 2017 economic forecasts, revising the UK’s 0.3% lower to 1.7% and the US’s by 0.2% to 2.1%. The euro zone 2017 prediction was boosted 0.2% to 1.9%.

The IMF’s overall global growth prediction for 2017 remained at 3.5%. The fund also published 2018 outlook updates.

Tonight in the US, the Federal Reserve commences a policy meeting from which outcomes will be announced early Thursday AEST.

Two house prices indices, a monthly consumer confidence report and a regional manufacturing index are also due tonight.

Akzo Nobel, Caterpillar, Domino’s Pizza, DuPont, General Motors, McDonald’s, Mitsubishi Motors, PZ Cussons and Telecom Italia are scheduled to report earnings.

In overnight corporate news, equity group KKR revealed a $US2.8B purchase price for WebMD Health Corp, propelling WebMD stock 20% higher.

Improved sales boosted Caterpillar.

Toy and game maker Hasbro dropped ~9% after undershooting expected sales growth.

Post-US trade, Alphabet has reported 21% higher quarterly revenue, and earnings which exceeded expectations, even though significantly impacted by a fine impose by European Union (EU) regulators. The NASDAQ had already settled at a new peak.

Earlier, Reckitt Benckiser fell more than 3%, dragging the FTSE 100 lower, after quantifying the sales impact extent of a June cyber attack.