The ASX will be looking at a weak start to trading for the week later today after Wall Street ended a tough week last Friday without many ideas.
The ASX 24 future platform was showing a tiny four-point gain early Saturday at the close, meaning the ASX’s start today will be all but flat.
That was after the ASX 200 ended Friday’s session down 49.1 points, or 0.8%, at 5859.4.
That was the lowest close in 11 weeks and with a drop of 1.1% over the week, the 4th weekly losses in a row.
The weak lead from Wall Street won’t help.
The Nasdaq slid and the S&P 500 closed little changed on Friday as early attempts to push up technology and growth stocks faded.
The end result for the session saw the three major Wall Street averages posting their second straight weekly falls.
The tech sector posted its fifth decline in six days and biggest weekly percentage decline since March as investors sold companies such as Apple (which has a big day planned for Tuesday that could help steady the uncertain sector – see separate story).
The Dow closed up 131.06 points, or 0.48%, to 27,665.64. The S&P 500 edged up 1.78 points, or 0.05%, to 3,340.97 but the Nasdaq Composite shed 66.05 points, or 0.6%, to end at 10,853.55.
For the week, the Dow fell 1.66%, the S&P lost 2.51% and the Nasdaq dropped 4.06%. With the 3.3% the week before, the Nasdaq is well and truly looking to go lower.
Meanwhile, the latest data showed US consumer prices increased solidly in August, but economists say labour market’s weak condition is likely to keep a lid on inflation as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 recession.
The Labor Department said its consumer price index rose 0.4% in August, marking its third consecutive monthly increase. On an annual basis that was a rise of 1.3%, up from 1.1% in July.
On a core basis the rise was 1.7%, still well short of the Fed’s target with the rise due to a surge in used car prices.
The Fed’s target is 2% but after the policy change, it is now a yardstick, not a rate rise now target if prices hit that level.
