Watch for the influence this week of US third-quarter earnings on Wall Street (which successfully negotiated the 31st anniversary of the Big 1987 crash on Friday) – especially Thursday when Amazon and Alphabet (Google) twitter and Snap report.
With the tech-heavy Nasdaq dragging the chain as investors worry about the health of these big tech stocks, Thursday’s profit announcements will be vital after Wall Street shed early gains on Friday as tech stocks retreated to finish mostly lower.
That saw the Nasdaq down for another week, but the S&P 500 & Dow each snapped a three-week losing streak.
Eurozone shares were up 0.3% last week, Australian shares up 0.7%, Japanese shares down 0.7% & Chinese shares down 1.1%. Bond yields rose slightly in the US but were flat to down elsewhere and while oil and metal prices eased, gold and iron ore rose.
Despite a rise in the US dollar over the week the Australian dollar was little changed around 71.20 US cents.
Another choppy day of trading on Friday saw the S&P 500 rise as much as 1.04% before giving up those gains to end the day 0.04% lower at 2,767.78.
The Dow rose 0.3% to 25,444.34, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.5% to 7,449.03.
For the week, the S&P 500 rose 0.02%, while the Dow climbed 0.4%, but the Nasdaq fell 0.6%.
The week was marred by choppy trade driven by concerns about rising rates, fears of a global economic slowdown and rising geopolitical tensions between Saudi Arabia and western powers over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Elsewhere in markets, the yield on the US 10-year rose 1.5 basis points on Friday to 3.194% – it was 3.15% a few days ago.
The dollar index, a gauge of the greenback against a weighted basket of peers, was down 0.2% to 95.69 for the day but up 0.5% for the week.
