A spot of blind groping for markets here and at home this week, with the Reserve Bank board meeting decision tomorrow and Wednesday’s National Accounts expected to dominate.
That was after a mixed ending to last week on Friday night that saw US markets ended higher and at or near record levels, and our market on the cusp of a small rise later today, judging by the 10 point rise on the overnight ASX 200 futures market.
Share markets rose over the last week helped by mostly good economic data, while President Trump’s decision to take the US out of the Paris climate change accord fell flat so far as investors were concerned.
US shares rose 1% to a new record high, Eurozone shares added 0.5%, Japanese shares surged 2.5%, Chinese shares rose 0.2% and Australian shares ended up 0.6% which was a bit more encouraging after May’s 2.5% slide.
Friday night’s softer than expected US jobs data saw gold price, US bond yields fall and the US dollar weaken.
Commodity prices mostly fell but the weaker $US resulted in little change in the $A which traded just under 74 US cents.
Iron ore prices rose on Friday night to end around $US57.79, according to the Metal Bulletin’s. That was up $US1.82 per tonne, or a rise of 3.2% from the 2017 low hit on Thursday of $US55.97.
Gold rose, but oil again fell to levels not seen for nearly two months.
Wall Street on Friday night saw US stocks close at record levels for a second consecutive session thanks to gains in technology and industrial stocks which more than offset the weak jobs report for May.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 138,000 in May, well short of the 180,000 -185,000 expected by economists. The prior two months were revised lower by 66,000 jobs than previously reported and the unemployment rate fell to a 16-year low of 4.3%.
Despite the disappointing jobs figures, analysts still expect the US Federal Reserve to raise rates at its June 13-14 meeting.
For the week, the S&P rose 0.95%, the Dow added 0.6% and the Nasdaq added 1.54%.
That was after the Dow rose 62.11 points, or 0.29%, to 21,206.29 on Friday, the S&P 500 .added 9.01 points, or 0.37%, to 2,439.07 and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 58.97 points, or 0.94%, to 6,305.80.
In European shares rose but markets came off earlier highs after a disappointing U.S. jobs growth.
The STOXX 600 index rose ended up 0.2% on the day as Germany’s DAX rose 1.25% and UK’s FTSE added 0.05%, having both hit fresh record highs earlier in the day.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei index broke through the 20,000-point level for the first time since December 2015 on Friday. The Nikkei rose 1.6% to 20,177.28 points, its highest close since mid-August 2015. For the week, it was up 2.5%.
In Australia, the ASX200 opened very strongly on Friday and closed up 0.9% at 5788.1, for a narrow 0.6% gain for the week.
It was the second weekly gain for the index.
