The ASX is heading for another indifferent start to trading later this morning after Wall Street and Europe ended their sessions on Friday night weaker and worried.
Eurozone shares fell 0.4% on Friday and the US S&P 500 lost 0.1% with concerns about delays to the Trump tax package, or perhaps its failure to pass the US Congress, worrying investors.
Reflecting the soft global lead ASX 200 futures ended Friday night’s session down one point suggesting a flat start to trading this morning.
For last week, share markets were mixed over the last week with US shares down 0.2% not helped by that tax reform uncertainty and Eurozone shares down 2.3%, with worries about Britain’s political stability and that of Spain worrying investors.
Japanese shares were hit by profit taking after the big rally in recent weeks but still managed a 0.6% rise and Chinese were up 3% as President Trump came and went, leaving the Chinese bemused.
Australian shares ended the week down on Friday, but up 1.2% for the week.
Bond yields rose except in Japan. Oil, gold and iron ore prices rose but copper prices fell.
The US dollar fell back a bit and had its worst week of the year, falling 0.6% against a basket of its major peers.
The $A was little changed around 76.90 US cents..
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 had its first weekly drop in 2 months.
The S&P 500 slid 0.1% on Friday to 2,582.30, taking its weekly loss to 0.2% — its first weekly fall since September. Financials led the decline over the week, falling 2.6% on those tax cut delay fears.
The Dow slid 0.5 per cent to 23,422.21, while the Nasdaq fell 0.2% to 6,750.94, snapping a six-week winning streak. The Dow lost half a per cent over the week and the Nasdaq was down 0.2%.
The Australian stockmarket’s rebound reversed course on Friday, dragging the ASX 200 down 20 points, or 0.3%, lower to 6029.
That still left the benchmark index up 69 points or 1.2% for the week, while the All Ordinaries added 73 points or 1.2% to 6104.
