Local Markets Commentary

The Australian market commences a new week’s trade on mixed commodities leads, in the absence of major data releases, and amid Monday public holiday weekends for China, the US and UK.

In overnight Friday commodities trade, oil turned higher. US gold futures picked up the pace of Thursday’s rise. LME copper swung lower. Iron ore (China, 62% Fe) dropped below $US60/t to a seven-month low.

The $A rose slightly after trading at ~US74.40c early Friday evening.

Locally today, a weekly capital city residential property price report is due.

China’s markets will be closed today and tomorrow, due to public holidays.

Overseas Market Commentary

US equities markets chopped and swung on mixed data overnight Friday, ahead of a Monday holiday long weekend.

Mainland European equities markets fell early while UK equities trade vacillated amid a falling £ and polling which showed the governing party had lost much of its lead ahead of the 8 June national election.

Meanwhile, mixed reports indicating discord, were coming out of the G7 leaders’ forum which ended late Saturday.

In US data releases, a second (of three) March quarter GDP reading put growth at 1.2%, against the initial 0.7% estimate and expectations of ~0.9%.

April durable goods orders fell 0.7%, following forecasts of a 1.2% drop, and against a 2.3% rise for March.

A 2.1% preliminary March quarter personal consumption expenditures (PCE) estimate exceeded forecasts by 0.1%, and represented a similar pullback from December quarter 2016.

The final May University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading came in at 97.1, following 97.7 for April.

Tonight in the euro zone, European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi is meeting with a European Parliament economic committee.

India’s PM commences a two-day visit to Germany, with trade and investment firmly on the agenda.

In the UK, the PM and opposition leader will be interviewed on prime-time television.

US and UK markets will not trade later today and tonight due to public holidays.