A mixed end to the week for sharemarkets on Friday here and offshore.
Eurozone shares and the US S&P 500 both fell 0.1% on Friday not helped by soft US retail sales data. Tokyo rose 1%, most European markets shed ground, although London was 0.4% higher at the close, while Australia was also up 0.4%.
At close on Friday the ASX 200 Index was up 22 points at 5530.9. The All Ordinaries rose 0.5% 5626.3.
Reflecting the soft global lead, ASX 200 futures fell 11 points or 0.2% on overnight Friday night, pointing to a soft open for the ASX later this morning.
But over the week, shares were mostly higher on global markets.
US shares hit a series of new record highs, but could only end the week up 0.1%. Eurozone shares rose 2.4% to their highest since May, Japanese shares were up a solid 4.1%, Chinese shares ended 2.8% higher, and Australian shares added 0.6%.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index ended the week down 1.8 points, or 0.1%, at 2,183.99, the Dow lost 37.53 points, or 0.2%, to 18,575.9, but the Nasdaq Composite ended up 4.5 points, or 0.1%, at 5,232.89, an new all-time closing high.
All three major US indices, including the Nasdaq, had closed at fresh all time highs on Thursday for the first time since 1999, but only the Nasdaq built on that gain on Friday.
Bond yields mostly fell as investors remain unconvinced that the Fed is any closer to raising interest rates again, especially after the softer than expected retail sales figures which showed no gain.
Commodity prices were mixed with oil up sharply, but metals were down and a lower US dollar generally saw the $A briefly make it above $US0.77, but it lost half a cent on Friday night to end around 76.50.
US retail sales stalled in July after three straight monthly gains. They were still up 2.3% over the year to July.
Surprisingly though, US producer prices fell 0.4% in July, (after a 0.5% jump in June), the biggest drop since September 2015, business stocks rose 0.2% in June (which was a bit of a surprise).
The weak figures support the view for that the US economy isn’t strong enough to tolerate a rate increase in September, or later in 2016.
“Based on the PPI and retail-sales figures, all indications now look like a [Federal Reserve] rate increase in 2016 is clearly off the table,” said Tom di Galoma managing director at Seaport Global Holdings, told Marketwatch.com.
Oil prices had their best week since April and the S&P 500 energy sector had its best week in a month as Opec revealed that it would hold an informal meeting in September and as Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said that the kingdom could participate in coordinated action to help balance the oil market.
But the record highs came off the back of better than expected results from Macy’s, Nordstrom and other US department stores which pushed consumer discretionary shares higher. But the weak retail sales data for July on Friday wrecked that confidence.
