Watch for a weak and nervous start to trading in Australia and Asia in the wake of the news that the FBI announced it had reopened an investigation into Hiliary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
That news late Friday, US time saw the US dollar, Wall Street and gold all wobble – with gold wobbling upwards and the others weakening.
Eurozone sharemarkets had closed well before that news broke and lost a tiny 0.1% on the day.
But US markets fell and the US S&P 500 lost 0.3% after being up 0.4% before the FBI probe news broke and off the back of an upturn in US third quarter GDP growth to an annual 2.9%, the best for two years.
The weak lead saw ASX 200 futures fall 0.1%, so the ASX will open down around 5 points this morning. After the three days of fall on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, a modest fall to start this week here will be welcomed by investors still wondering what the sell off happened.
But this watch for more news regarding the FBI investigation of Clinton’s emails and the outcome of an OPEC meeting regarding oil production in Vienna (see commodities).
Up to Friday on Wall Street, shares were mixed over the last week with Japanese sharemarket up 1.5% and Chinese shares up 0.4%. But Eurozone shares ended flat, US shares lost 0.7% and Australian shares down 2.7%.
Bond yields continued to back up as prospects for a December Fed rate hike continue to firm and as stronger UK growth lessened the chances of a further Bank of England rate cut. Commodity prices were mixed with oil down but gold up and the $A fell slightly despite a fall in the value of the greenback.
On Wall Street, news of the re-opened FBI probe of Clinton’s use of a private email server raised fears that Republican candidate Donald Trump might have a chance at winning the presidential race on November 8.
That certainly made a lot of investors toey (and saw the Mexcian peso drop sharply).
The Dow fell 8.49 points, or less than 0.1%, lower at 18,161.19, while the S&P 500 index closed off 6.63 points, or 0.3%, at 2,126.41, and the Nasdaq Composite Index finished 25.87 points, or 0.5%, down at 5,190.10.
For the week, the S&P 500 ended off 0.7%, the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.3%, while the Dow industrials ended little-changed. Among corporate movers, Baker Hughes jumped to close up 8.4% after reports that General Electric is in talks to combine its oil-and-gas assets with the company.
