There will be a hesitant start to trading today after markets closed mixed on Saturday morning.
And the coming week will be quiet as well with the US closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving and ending early on Friday. This will make for an effective four day weekend which will tempt investors to be cautious.
Eurozone shares fell 0.7% and the US S&P 500 lost 0.2% in quiet trading on Friday.
Despite the soft global lead ASX 200 futures rose 0.1% so a 5 to 10 point gain is possible at the open for the Australian share market later today.
Gold miners will be hit hard by the sharp fall last week and especially on Friday, but that will be tempered by the fall in the value of the $A.
The past week saw US shares rise 0.8% and Japanese shares gain 3.4% as bond yields and the $US pushed higher, Chinese shares though were flat, Eurozone shares lost 0.3% and Australian shares fell 0.2% after the 3.7% surge in the previous week.
Emerging market shares remained under pressure from the rising $US and commodity prices were mixed – gold down, oil firmer. The rising $US saw the $A fall below $US0.74, to $0.7325 on Friday night its lowest since June.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 advanced 0.8% over the week to finish at 2,181.90 on Friday, slower than the 3.8% gain the week before. The Dow and the Nasdaq Composite also ended the week in positive territory, rising 0.1% and 1.6% respectively.
All three indices fell on Friday, retreating from near all-time high levels. Nasdaq touched a record high in morning trading before falling back.
The sell-off in US bonds also slowed this week. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury, which moves opposite to prices, rose about 18.7 basis points, about half of what it rose the week before. That was still enough to push it to its highest point of the year so far, 2.35%, on Friday.
The US dollar made large gains against the Japanese yen, Australian dollar and the euro. US crude oil futures rebounded after three straight weeks of declines, with West Texas Intermediate rising 5% over the past five days to reach $US45.59 a barrel.
Friday also saw the Tokyo market join markets in China in bull market territory.
The Nikkei 225 index is up by 20% from a June low of 14,864, with a 0.6 per cent rise today pushing it to 17,967. A bull market is defined as a gain of 20% from a low.
The Nikkei 225 jumped 3.4% last week.Japanese stocks have been buoyed by the weakness of the yen this week as the dollar has risen after the presidential election.
China’s Shanghai market moved into its bull phase the week before, joining other markets in the country up 20% or more.
