ASX down 1.75% for the week, miners continue to drag

The news: The benchmark ASX 200 slipped 0.2% after a sluggish day of trade to 7,156.70, closing 1.67% down for the week. The Aussie dollar enjoyed a Friday afternoon breakout, exiting a more than two day range to reclaim 64 US cents. Most major currencies were up against the Greenback on Friday, with the DXY index losing 0.28% since this morning, but with its nearly two-month uptrend in tact for now. Natural gas prices also jumped after the deadline for partial strikes at three of Chevron's LNG facilities passed without a deal.

The numbers: ASX's modest decline was led by materials stocks, which lost 1.0% as mining giants BHP (-1.35%), Fortescue (-2.27%) and Rio Tinto (-2.28) were weighed-down by an overnight downtick in iron ore prices. The materials sector finished 3.4% down for the week.

The context: Chinese CPI and PPI data will be released on Saturday morning, and G20 meetings are set to take place in Delhi over the weekend. The ABS will release Australian unemployment data on Thursday. Globally, the UK GDP data arrives on Wednesday afternoon, followed by US CPI figures that evening. The European Central Bank will publish its monetary policy statement on Thursday night. On Friday, eyes will be on China's YoY industrial production figures, after undershooting expectations in July.