Local Markets Commentary

Major international equities markets continued to fall overnight, suggesting another early decline for the Australian market.

In overnight commodities trade, oil dropped and gold continued higher. Iron ore steadied. LME copper also settled flat.

The $A gained after trading at ~US76.35c yesterday evening.

Locally today, September trade figures are due 11.30am AEDST. A services sector activity index will be released pre-trade. ANZ and BTT results are also in.

Regionally, Caixin will release final October services and composite PMIs for China 12.45pm AEDST.

Japan’s markets are closed today, due to a public holiday.

Overseas Market Commentary

Major European and US equities markets fell on opening overnight and never looked like recovering.

In the US, 1.5B more shares were traded than the average for the past 20 sessions.

The US Federal Reserve concluded its second last policy meeting of the year, releasing a statement indicating a possible short-term interest rate increase out of the 14 December meeting, due to a yet stronger case.

In the meantime, a US private sector employment report estimated 147,000 jobs had been added in October, following forecasts of 130,000 – 190,000.

Weekly mortgage applications fell a further 1.2%.

Tonight in the US, a job layoffs report is anticipated, ahead of tomorrow night’s monthly national employment figures. ISM’s services sector activity index and September factory orders are also due.

Across the Atlantic, the Bank of England holds a policy meeting, after which a statement will be released.

Coca-Cola HBC, Credit Suisse, Glencore, Kraft Heinz, Lenovo, Morrison (UK supermarkets) and Singapore Airlines are scheduled to report earnings and/or provide trading updates today and tonight.

GlaxoSmithKline trades ex-dividend on the FTSE100.

Overnight, Ford Motor reported a 12% drop in October US sales.