Markets will be looking for an unsteady rise in Asia today after Wall Street ended the week still wondering about a rise in US interest rates in December.
Despite suggestions from fed chair, Janet Yellen, that the US economy was still a bit confusing, she said nothing to change the belief that rates will rise – this was underlined by mostly solid retail sales data for September (although the core reading was weaker than forecast).
Wall Street ended positive, but not very convincingly and that saw overnight futures trading end lower on Saturday morning – pointing to a small 5 to 10 point loss when trading resumes on the ASX later this morning.
While Eurozone shares rose a strong 1.5% on Friday, the US S&P 500 ended basically flat with mixed US retail sales and those comments by Janet Yellen. But a stronger than expected rise in producer prices supporting the case for a December Fed rate rise.
Over the week, share markets were mixed with US shares down 1%, Australian shares down 0.6%, Japanese shares basically flat, Eurozone shares up 0.8% and Chinese shares up 1.6%.
Bond yields rose and the Aussie dollar edged higher, despite a stronger greenback.
Wall Street ended barely higher after an early rise became a slid and then a drift to the close, and the three main equity benchmarks finished the week with a second-straight weekly loss.
The Dow ended up 0.2% at 18,138, closing well of its highs of the session, the S&P 500 index was little-changed at 2,132 and the Nasdaq Composite Index was flat at 5,214.
Better-than-expected quarterly results from JP Morgan Chase & Co and Citigroup delivered an initial boost to the broader market on Friday.
Although that set an upbeat tone, Wells Fargo & Co.’s 2 million fake-account scandal overshadowed its solid results, with a sharp drop in new accounts opened at the bank in the quarter.
Comments from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen where she suggested the Fed could overshoot its 2% inflation target, and the stronger greenback, helped to limit gains for US shares.
For the week, the Dow closed off 0.6%, the S&P 500 ended with a weekly decline of 1% and the Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.5%.
The US earnings season moved into high gear next week, with more than 80 companies listed on the S&P 500 due to report third-quarter figures.
Oil futures eased on Friday, but managed a fourth consecutive week of gains as traders noted a fall in US crude production (in the lower 48 states, not including Alaska) to a level not seen for more than two years.
November West Texas Intermediate crude futures lost 9 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $US50.35 a barrel in New York. For the week, prices rose 1.1%, after gains in each of the last three weeks.
In London, December Brent crude fell 8 cents, or 0.2%, to $US51.95 a barrel, for a tiny weekly gain of 0.1%.
The EIA said US crude stockpiles climbed by 4.9 million barrels in the week ended October 7.
And domestic crude production for the lower 48 states fell by 36,000 barrels a day to 7.969 million barrels a day. That is the lowest since June 2014, when the big slide in oil prices started.
But data from Baker Hughes Friday revealed that the number of rigs actively drilling for oil rose for a seventh straight week, by 4 to 432 rigs. With a rise of 11 in the number of gas rigs in use the total number of US rigs in use hit 539.
Meanwhile, Comex gold futures settled lower on Friday night, our time, as the dollar climbed on the back of solid US retail sales data for last month, and notched up their first weekly gain in three weeks.
Gold futures had posted declines in each of the last two weeks, with last week’s roughly 5% drop being the largest of its kind in more than three years.
Comex December gold fell $US2.10, or 0.2%, to settle at $US1,255.50 an ounce. Gold futures ended the week up about 0.3%, according to Fact Set.
Comex December silver fell 1.7 cents, or 0.1%, to $US17.441 an ounce, holding on to a nearly 0.4% gain on the week, while Comex December copper lost 1.2 cents, or 0.5%, to $US2.111 a pound, ending 2.5% lower for the week.
And finally, with those Crown employees being arrested in China, the share prices of Crown and Echo Entertainment will come under great pressure today as investors worry about the prospects of a big growth area being damaged.
