Share markets face a mixed opening in Australia and Asia today after a messy end to trading on the weekend provided no firm guide.
Solid retail data in the US, mixed growth figures from Europe (only the German and Spanish economies are growing strongly), but a weak economic data dump for April on Saturday from China, left us none the wiser for the coming week.
The US earnings season is winding down and retailers will be in even more focus this week – against the back drop of the 1.3% rise in headline retail sales for April, but also the widespread sell-off in the sector last week.
Eurozone shares gained 0.5% on Friday, but the US S&P 500 lost 0.9% on the back of further poor earnings results from US retailers offsetting that positive news on retail sales.
As a result of the weak US trading the ASX 200 futures lost 15 points or 0.3% which, along with weaker than expected Chinese activity data for April released on Saturday, suggests a soft start for the local market today.
In fact, the conflicting retailing news saw Wall Street end around month lows, especially for the S&P 500.
Over the week US shares lost 0.5% and Chinese shares remained under pressure falling another 3%, but eurozone shares rose 0.5%, Japanese shares enjoyed a 1.9% rise (helped by a lower yen) and Australian shares gained 0.7%.
Bond yields generally fell, commodity prices were mixed with oil up, but metals down and the $A fell below $US0.73 (to 72.71 US cents).
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 17.62 points, or 0.9% on Friday, to close at 2,046.49, it’s lowest closing level since April 11. It remains up 0.1% for the year so far after the loss of half a per cent over the week.
The Dow slumped 185.18 points, or 1.1%, to finish at 17,535.32. Friday’s close for the average was the lowest since March 28. Both the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 logged a third straight week of losses.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 19.66 points, or 0.4%, to close at 4,717.6, its fourth straight week of losses and is down 5.8% for the year.
Asian markets fell Friday, with markets rattled by oil-price volatility. The Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.4%, though it finished the week nearly 2% higher. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3% on the day, but saw a 3% drop for the week.
European stocks were mixed with the Stoxx 600 down half a per cent on the day, but up just on 1% for the week. Asian shares also ended the week on a mixed to weaker note and will start that way today.
