The ASX will start with a modest gain as overnight trading on the ASX futures market resisted a slide into the red on Wall Street on second and third thoughts about the Fed’s policy of holding interest rates steady for the next three years.
The ASX futures platform was showing a gain of 19 points just before 7 am Sydney time after US stocks finished well off their session lows.
The ASX gain came after the 73 point or 1.2% slump on the local market on Thursday.
The rise in the futures market trading came despite a global fall in share markets.
MSCI’s global benchmark for equity markets fell 0.76% to 570.64, and its emerging markets index slipped 0.8%. Markets in Europe all fell.
In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 1% after five straight days of gains while the Nikkei in Japan and KOPSI in South Korea shed 0.6%. and 1.2%, respectively.
The Dow closed 130.40 points, or 0.4%, lower at 27,901.98, after touching a low of 27,647.93. The S&P 500 index lost 28.48 points to end at 3,357.01, a decline of 0.8%, following a momentary dip to around 3,339. The Nasdaq shed 140.19 points, or 1.27%, to 10,910.28.
Not helping sentiment was another weak set of initial jobless claims – 860,000 in the week ending September 11, from 893,000 in the week ending September 4.
The US dollar weakened with the Aussie rising above 73 cents to trade around 73.12 at 7am Sydney time.
On Thursday, December gold lost $US20.60, or nearly 1.1%, to settle at $US1,949.90 an ounce.
Gold climbed in after hours trading on Wednesday in the wake of the Fed statement before retreating. Gold on Wednesday had settled up 0.2%.
December silver also fell, losing 38 cents, or 1.4%, settle at $US27.10 an ounce, after gaining less than 0.1% on Wednesday.
Comex December copper went the other way, rising 0.3% to end at $US3.071 a pound.
Iron ore pricers continued to fall, down another $US1.84 a tonne to $US122.36.
That’s a fall of 6% from the more than six year peak of $US130.17 hit on Monday.
Oil prices continued to shake-off their recent weakness after an OPEC committee said members were complying with the production cap and behaving themselves. All those fears about weak demand were pushed to onside and prices climbed.
West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery climbed by 81 cents, or 2%, to settle at $US40.97 a barrel in New York while in Europe November Brent crude added $1.08, or 2.6%, to settle at $US43.30 a barrel.
