Another late Friday selloff has left the ASX looking at a 30 point plus fall at the start of trading later today.
That’s after a sharp sell-off on Wall Street and in European markets on Friday following the release of weak Chinese economic data for November (see separate story).
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 496.87 points, or 2%, to finish near 24,1010.51. The fall put the Dow back into correction territory, (defined as a fall of at least 10% from a recent peak).
The S&P 500 dropped 1.9% to close at 2,599.95, while the Nasdaq shed 2.3% to end at 6,910.66.
Those falls reversed gains in the four days to Thursday and at the close, on Friday The S&P and Dow both saw a weekly decline of 2%, while the Nasdaq fell 2.3%.
Meanwhile, in commodities, the 1.2 million barrels a day production cap from OPEC, Russia and other producers continue to have a smaller than expected impact on global prices.
In fact, weak Chinese economic on data on Friday (weak retail sales, production, and urban investment) had a bigger impact on all markets, especially commodities.
But signs of more easing in tensions in the US-China trade war continue to help sentiment, but not as much as the negative feeling about the slowdown in the huge Chinese economy.
Oil futures fell on Friday, thanks to the stronger dollar and falls on global sharemarkets. West Texas Intermediate futures fell 2.6% on Friday to settle at $US51.20 a barrel, producing a loss for the week of 2.7%.
Brent crude futures lost 1.7% to end at $US60.28 a barrel for a loss for the week of 2.3%.
Like oil, Comex gold future lost ground on Friday and last week with strength in the US dollar helping to push prices down for the week.
The US dollar rose over the week, hitting an 18 month high on the dollar index (which tracks the greenback against a basket of other major currencies) with the Aussie sliding back under 72 US cents on Friday to close at 71.78 US cents.
The big issue for the market is the Fed’s expected rate rise to be announced early Thursday morning, Sydney time.
February gold fell $US6, or 0.5%, to settle at $US1,241.40 an ounce. That was a loss for 0.9% for the week.
Iron ore prices jumped more than 4.5% on Friday to regain the $US70 a tonne level for the first time in several weeks.
The index price rose by $US3.09 to $US70.74 a tonne
The price was up by more than 5% for the week as Chinese steel prices recovered sharply on Thursday and Friday.
And March Comex copper futures eased 0.4% on Friday to end at $US2.745 a pound. That was up 0.2% for the week.
