A weak start to trading on the ASX today after a big slide in futures trading on Friday night.
The ASX futures platform saw a slump of 58 points or 1% after a mixed end to the week on Wall Street.
That was after the ASX 200 rose 0.6% rise on Friday to be up 2% for the week. The ASX 200 rose 35.2 points to end at 6,126.2.
Eurozone were also weak, losing 1.2% on Friday and while the US S&P 500 was basically flat.
That ended a week when major global share markets rose – with the exception of Chinese shares.
US new coronavirus infection cases eased and there was optimism regarding a vaccine and the economic outlook, but some of the confidence was fraying a little on Friday.
US shares briefly surpassed their February closing high and rose 0.6% for the week. Eurozone shares were up 1.5%, Japanese shares rose 4.3% but Chinese shares fell 0.1%.
The AMP’s chief economist, Dr. Shane Oliver wrote in his weekend note that “The positive global lead along with a fall in new Victorian coronavirus cases saw Australian shares rise 2% to the top end of the range they’ve been in since June with strong gains in consumer staple, financial, real estate and retail stocks leading the gains.
Bond yields rose sharply on the back of rising inflation expectations. Oil, copper, and iron ore prices rose but the gold price dipped on Friday as bond yields rose.
The $A rose slightly as the $US fell.
On Wall Street shares posted a mixed finished Friday, spending much of the session near unchanged after a weaker-than-expected rise in retail sales underlined lingering questions about the economy’s resilience,
The Dow closed up 34.30 points, 0.1%, at 27,931.02, after going positive in the last moments of trade. The S&P 500 dipped 0.58 points, or less than 0.1%, to finish at 3,372.85. The Nasdaq Composite shed 23.20 points, or 0.2%, to close at 11,019.30.
The trio of benchmarks ended with weekly gains, with the Dow up 1.8% and the S&P 500 rising 0.6%. Friday’s gain turned the Nasdaq barely positive for the week, up 0.1%.
The S&P 500 briefly traded above its February 19 closing high of 3,386.15 on Wednesday and Thursday but was unable to hang on for a record.
