The ASX will start flat to slightly higher this morning after trading ended slightly in the green on the futures market early Saturday.
But more tests lie ahead this week with the expected Fed rate rise early Thursday morning, our time; the important Dutch elections Wednesday night which will likely rock sentiment, 24 hours after when UK Prime Minister, Theresa May could formally trigger the exit of Britain from the EU.
Compared to the likely impact of those events – especially the Dutch elections which could take weeks to settle – the sweeping Labor win in the WA elections on Saturday will have little impact.
Of more importance from that result will be the damage done to One Nation’s appeal to voters and the way investors view the chances of a reasonable budget from the Turnbull government being passed by the Senate.
The Share Price Index ended 3 points higher at the close on Saturday morning after the US market ended higher and eurozone shares closed also ended on the up.
Markets rode out nervousness about the almost certain rise in US interest rates this week after the solid February jobs report which saw 235,000 new jobs created – thanks in part to one of the warmest Februarys on record in America (see separate story).
While US shares rose on Friday, Wall Street was down 0.4%, European shares eded up 0.3%, Japanese shares were up 0.7%, Australian shares 0.8% and but Chinese shares were flat.
Wall Street saw stocks mostly end in the green on Saturday morning, our time but the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed out the week lower, ending their six-week winning streaks.
The S&P 500 rose 7 points, or 0.3%, to close at 2,372 but fell 0.4% for the week. The Dow added 45 points, or 0.2%, to end at 20,902, losing 0.5% on the week after four straight weeks of gains.
The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 22 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 5,861 for a weekly drop of 0.2%.
The ASX 200 Index closed 0.6% higher and the All Ordinaries ended up 0.5% on Friday, reaching 5775.6 points and 5811.2 points respectively. Over the week, the ASX 200 was up 0.8% and the All Ordinaries 0.6%.
Woodside Petroleum largely shrugged off the sharp fall in oil prices and finished the week up 1.2%, but Santos lost 2.2% and Oil Search 1.7%.
Iron ore weakened and that weighed resources giants. BHP Billiton closed the week down 4.6% (thanks also to the oil price slide) and Rio Tinto lost 3.2%.
Rising bond yields around the world helped financials, with the Australian banking sector up 2.2%.
The Commonwealth Bank ended the week 1.6% higher, Westpac Banking Corporation jumped 3.5%, the ANZ Banking Group 2.5%, and the NAB was up 3.2%.
