Local Markets Commentary

The Australian market opens today’s trade in anticipation of a speech heralding national budget emphases, and key announcements out of Japan and China.

International equities leads are lacklustre at best.

In overnight commodities trade, US gold futures fell modestly further. WTI crude settled slightly higher, but Brent moderately lower. LME copper rose a little.

The $A fell after rising above US75.00c again early yesterday evening.

Locally today, Australia’s treasurer Scott Morrison is scheduled to deliver a pre-budget speech at 1pm AEST.

March quarter import and export prices are also due.

Regionally, China’s March industrial profits are expected 11.30am AEST. Yesterday, an official national economist suggested profits grew by greater than 20% during the March quarter.

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) is scheduled to release a post-policy meeting statement 1pm AEST.

The BoJ is also due to publish a quarterly outlook report.

Overseas Market Commentary

Major European equities markets climbed in the last two hours of trade, while US indices fell in the final 30 minutes.

US president Donald Trump told a special senate meeting that he planned to tighten sanctions on North Korea.

Meanwhile, South Korea expressed reservations concerning a US missile defence system being set up in South Korea.

For its part, Russia again publicly denounced the US bombing of a Syrian government airbase earlier this month.

In US domestic developments, the House of Representatives revealed it may need to pass an interim bill to fund US government services through next week, as agreement on raising the national debt level is unlikely to be reached by Friday’s (midnight) deadline.

Proposed information regarding proposed US tax changes contained a (non-quantified) tax on an estimated $US2.5 trillion worth of company cash held overseas.

As anticipated, the new US administration said it hoped to cut corporate taxes by 20% to 15%.

Under the overall plan, taxes for individuals would be capped at 35% within just three tax brackets rather than the current seven, but no figures were offered for the likely the bracket bounds.

Tonight in the US, weekly new unemployment claims, durable goods orders, wholesale inventories, pending home sales and a regional manufacturing index are due.

The European Central Bank (ECB) holds a policy meeting and subsequent press conference.

Air China, Alphabet, Amazon, American Airlines, AstraZeneca, Baidu, Bayer, China Merchants Bank, Comcast, Deutsche Bank, Domino’s Pizza, Ford Motor, Hyundai Steel, Intel, Kia Motors, KKR, Komatsu, LG Electronics, Lloyds Banking, Microsoft, NEC, Nintendo, PetroChina, Samsung Electronics, Starbucks and Total are among companies listed to report earnings or provide updates today and tonight.

Antofagasta, ITV, Legal & General and Rolls-Royce trade ex-dividend on the FTSE 100.

In overnight corporate news, Twitter was pushed 8% higher on better-than-anticipated quarterly results, despite a revenue drop.

Credit Suisse announced a 4B Swiss franc fundraiser designed to meet regulatory requirements.