A solid start is forecast for the ASX later today after a mostly positive finish on markets on Friday night.
ASX 200 futures rose 24 points or 0.4% overnight Friday and pointing to a positive start to trade for the week that will be dominated by the September quarter CPI on Wednesday (see separate story), the latest decision from the US Federal Reserve on Thursday morning (our time) and the ANZ and Macquarie earnings reports on Thursday and Friday (See separate reports).
On Friday the ASX rose 0.7%, or 45.6 points, to 6739.2, the highest closing level since the start of this month.
Friday’s gains on Friday saw the benchmark index close the week up 1.35%, extending its winning streak to three. It’s now bounced 4.1% since early October.
Eurozone shares rose 0.16% on Friday (and hit highs not seen since the start of 2018) and the US S&P 500 added 0.4% as the US indicated that the trade talks with China are making progress.
Over the week US and Eurozone shares rise 1.2%. Japanese shares added 1.4% and Chinese shares rose 0.7%.
Wall Street shares are now just 0.1% below their July record highs and Australian shares are just 1.5% below their July record high.
Australian shares benefitted from the positive global lead with strong gains in resources, utilities, consumer discretionary, health and property shares.
Tech stocks though were sold off with doubts emerging about WiseTech and Afterpay Touch (again) and the weak Amazon result in the US.
Bond yields rose in most major countries except in Australia with local investors still eyeing a rate cut from the RBA next week.
Oil, metal (gold and copper especially) and iron ore prices rose but the Australian dollar fell slightly to end at 68.23 US cents – down a quarter of a cent over the week.
The S&P 500 ended at its second-highest close in history on Friday, while the Dow finished less than 1.5% below its record close.
The S&P 500 index added 12.26 points, or 0.4% to close at 3,022.55, just 0.1% away from its record close of 3,025.86 on July 26, 2019. It actually hit a new all-time intraday high in the session of 3,027.98.
The Dow added 152.53 points at 26,958.06, a gain of 0.6% and only 1.5% off its all-time closing high of 27,359.16, also set in July. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed 57.32 points higher or 0.7% at 8,243.12.
For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.2%, the Dow gained 0.7% and the Nasdaq was up 1.9%.
