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Before making any investment decision, you should consult your adviser.
Market Opener – 20 Mar 2018
Local Markets Commentary
The Australian market opens today’s trade with scant positive support from overnight international equities and commodities trade.
In commodities trade, oil turned lower. US gold futures swung modestly higher.
LME copper continued lower and nickel fell.
Iron ore (China port, 62% Fe) dropped further, notching three consecutive falls. The $A recovered beyond US78.10c after falling beneath ~US76.95c early yesterday evening.
Locally, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) publishes the minutes of its 6 March policy meeting 11.30am AEDST.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases a December quarter residential property price report.
Pre-trade, a weekly consumer sentiment report is due.
Elsewhere, G20 finance ministers are meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina until tomorrow evening (AEDST). While trade policies will feature in discussions, nothing of market consequence is expected.
Japan’s markets will be closed tomorrow due to a public holiday.
Overseas Market Commentary
Major European and US equities markets fell on opening overnight and never looked like recovering, amid caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting outcomes statement (early Thursday AEDST) and widespread international political disquiet.
Also overnight, UK and European Union (EU) chief negotiators for the UK’s proposed separation from the EU announced conditional agreement on a 21-month transition period.
This pushed the British pound higher against the $US but effectively further hurt equities trade.
Meanwhile, the euro zone’s January trade surplus was reported at a €19.9B three-month low, following December’s €22.3B.
Construction output fell 2.2% for the month, following a 0.7% rise in December. For the year however, output represented a 3.7% improvement.
Tonight in the US, the Federal Reserve commences a two-day policy meeting from which outcomes will be known early Thursday (AEDST).
FedEx is among companies scheduled to report earnings.
In overnight corporate news, Facebook suffered an ~7% fall on confirmation a major user private data ‘breach’ was effectively a voluntary handover of information during 2016.
This appeared to spark tighter regulation fears for the tech sector, bruising other tech stock prices.
In the meantime, Japan’s Soft Bank had revealed that it was considering a perhaps medium-term relisting of UK chip manufacturer ARM Holdings that the group acquired in 2016.
Russia’s Rosneft reported improved quarterly earnings on better prices coupled with higher production.
Oracle has reported post-US trade this morning and could influence select trade tonight.
The Australian market opens today’s trade with scant positive support from overnight international equities and commodities trade.
In commodities trade, oil turned lower. US gold futures swung modestly higher.
LME copper continued lower and nickel fell.
Iron ore (China port, 62% Fe) dropped further, notching three consecutive falls. The $A recovered beyond US78.10c after falling beneath ~US76.95c early yesterday evening.
Locally, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) publishes the minutes of its 6 March policy meeting 11.30am AEDST.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases a December quarter residential property price report.
Pre-trade, a weekly consumer sentiment report is due.
Elsewhere, G20 finance ministers are meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina until tomorrow evening (AEDST). While trade policies will feature in discussions, nothing of market consequence is expected.
Japan’s markets will be closed tomorrow due to a public holiday.
Overseas Market Commentary
Major European and US equities markets fell on opening overnight and never looked like recovering, amid caution ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting outcomes statement (early Thursday AEDST) and widespread international political disquiet.
Also overnight, UK and European Union (EU) chief negotiators for the UK’s proposed separation from the EU announced conditional agreement on a 21-month transition period.
This pushed the British pound higher against the $US but effectively further hurt equities trade.
Meanwhile, the euro zone’s January trade surplus was reported at a €19.9B three-month low, following December’s €22.3B.
Construction output fell 2.2% for the month, following a 0.7% rise in December. For the year however, output represented a 3.7% improvement.
Tonight in the US, the Federal Reserve commences a two-day policy meeting from which outcomes will be known early Thursday (AEDST).
FedEx is among companies scheduled to report earnings.
In overnight corporate news, Facebook suffered an ~7% fall on confirmation a major user private data ‘breach’ was effectively a voluntary handover of information during 2016.
This appeared to spark tighter regulation fears for the tech sector, bruising other tech stock prices.
In the meantime, Japan’s Soft Bank had revealed that it was considering a perhaps medium-term relisting of UK chip manufacturer ARM Holdings that the group acquired in 2016.
Russia’s Rosneft reported improved quarterly earnings on better prices coupled with higher production.
Oracle has reported post-US trade this morning and could influence select trade tonight.