Local Markets Commentary

The Australian market will open on positive US equities leads.

In overnight commodities trade, oil turned lower. US gold futures again settled slightly higher. Iron ore continued its latest decline. US (Comex) copper fell a little further.

The $A appreciated ~US2c after trading at ~US75.55c yesterday evening.

Locally today, a weekly consumer sentiment reading will be released pre-trade. July building approvals are due 11.30am AEST.

Companies trading ex-dividend include, AWC, BLD and SAI.

Overseas Market Commentary

US markets gained early overnight, although overall volumes were reported at the least this year. Financial stocks were in favour, some offering short-covering was in play in association with interest rate rise expectations.

Mainland European equities markets fell early and failed to recover. UK markets did not trade due to a public holiday.

US economic indicators were mixed.

July personal spending was reported 0.3% higher for the month, representing a fourth consecutive improvement. Personal income grew 0.4% in the same period, however.

A personal-consumption expenditures price index (PCE) remained steady. Excluding food and energy, it rose 0.1%.

A manufacturing index for Texas came in at -6.2, dropping 4.9 for the month, and against forecasts of -3.9. Production and shipment components notably rose, however.

Tonight in the US, house price and consumer confidence indices are due.

Wuhan Iron & Steel, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Bright Dairy & Food and H&R Block are among companies scheduled to report earnings today and tonight.

Overnight, Apple sparked new and alteration iPhone speculation with the announcement of a 7 September event. Tax arrangements in Ireland were also in focus, ahead of an EU ruling, anticipated as early as later today.