A strong opening is on the cards for the ASX this morning after the overnight market pushed futures higher thanks to an upbeat close to the week on Wall Street.
But watch for the market’s reaction to Friday’s 13% iron ore price crash to hit confidence, especially in the shares of BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals.
Friday saw BHP fall 1.6% to $49.57, Rio Tinto lost 2% to $125.43, and Fortescue Metals shares lost 2.8% to $22.79.
Reflecting the positive global lead ASX 200 futures rose 48 points, or 0.7% ahead of the start of trading this morning.
That was after the ASX 200 ended a three-day slide on Friday to close 31.5 points higher at 7,014.2. But it still lost 0.9% for the week.
Friday’s rise was led by the Commonwealth which rose 0.6% on Friday to end at a new record close of $96.58 which was a rise of 2.8% for the week.
It touched a new all-time high of $97.38 in trading.
Westpac added 0.9% to $25.41, NAB jumped 1% to $26.22, and ANZ was also 1% higher at $27.42. Macquarie Group shares also rose 2.3% to finish at $158.34.
The CBA though was on its own over the week – Westpac, ANZ, NAB, Macquarie, BHP, Rio and Fortescue shares all fell.
For the week, Eurozone shares lost 0.5%, Japanese shares fell 4.3% while Chinese shares bucked the global trend, rising 2.3%.
Meanwhile Wall Street jumped on Friday led by technology shares as the market rebounded for a second day from three days of losses culminating in Wednesday’s inflation scare sell-off.
The Dow climbed 360.68 points, or nearly 1.1%, to 34,382.13. The S&P 500 added 1.5% to 4,173.85 and the Nasdaq snapped back 2.3% to 13,429.98 (which halved the week’s loss of 2.3%). The Dow lost 1.1% and the S&P 500 shed 1.4%
The major markers had a roller-coaster week that saw the Dow drop nearly 1,200 points from Monday to Wednesday. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell 4% and 5%, respectively, during that period but the bounce Thursday and Friday saw momentum restored.
Tech stocks were the biggest outperformers Friday. Tesla was up more than 3%. Facebook jumped 3.5%, while Alphabet and Microsoft rose more than 2%. Apple, Amazon and Netflix also all climbed over 1%.
With the ruling that people vaccinated do not need to wear masks, hopes of a wider return to normality in the US saw shares like United Airlines and American Airlines climb more than 5%.
Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line shares both popped more than 8%, while Royal Caribbean shares were up more than than 7%.
Retail earnings will dominate this week, along with those misplaced fears about inflation.
