The ASX is looking at another solid start to trading today after the overnight futures market finished Friday’s session with a 37 point rise.
That was after records on Wall Street and good rises in Europe and Asia – investors had pumped close to $US30 billion into equity funds half way through last week – the biggest amount in nearly 13 years.
Wall Street is closed tonight for the Presidents’ Day holiday, so markets outside the US will trade without a lead until Tuesday night.
The ASX200 fell 0.6% on Friday to end at 6,806.7 ending a week that started with an 11-month high before losing its way and drifted to a 0.6% loss by Friday’s close.
Friday’s news of yet another snap lockdown in Victoria didn’t help on Friday and travel and tourism stocks fell and will remain under pressure until mid week with the clamp is due end.
Bond yields generally rose as did commodity prices and the $A, as the $US fell. The Aussie dollar ended around 77.60 US cents.
Qantas fell 4.8% to $4.55 and Sydney Airport dropped 2.1% to $5.59.
Webjet was 3.9% lower, Flight Centre lost 2.7%, and Corporate Travel Management shed 2.5%.
Toll giant Transurban slipped 1.7% to $13.05 and mall owners Vicinity Centres, Scentre Group, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, and Mirvac shed ground
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq set record closing highs on Friday as investors chased energy, financial and materials shares and sold big tech stocks in anticipation of new fiscal aid from Washington to help the US economy recover.
The Lipper financial data group said on Thursday that US-based stock funds attracted $US22.9 billion in the week to Wednesday, the largest weekly inflow since March 2008.
The Dow rose 27.7 points, or 0.09%, to 31,458.4, the S&P 500 gained 18.45 points, or 0.47%, to 3,934.83 and the Nasdaq added 69.70 points, or 0.5%, to 14,095.47.
For the week The Dow rose 1%, the S&P 500 added 1.2% and the Nasdaq was up 1.7%. Eurozone shares gained 0.8%, Japanese shares rose 2.6% and Chinese shares rose 5.9% ahead of the long break for the Lunar New Year.
