ASX finishes lower to kick off big week for macro data

The news: The Australian sharemarket finished lower on Monday despite some early gains to begin a week of big inflation data from the US and Europe and a delayed OPEC+ meeting. The ASX 200 benchmark closed 0.76% lower at 6,987.60. Iron ore prices have eased after rallying more than 11% since this time last month. The Aussie dollar is trading slightly lower than on Friday, fetching 65.7 US cents after running into strong resistance at the 66 cent level. Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers named the Bank of England's Andrew Hauser to be Michele Bullock's second-in-charge at the RBA.

The numbers: By sector, only IT stocks managed to finish in the green, gaining 0.5%. Materials slumped 1.1%, tracking with the easing iron ore price, which clipped majors BHP (-1.5%), Fortescue (-2.0%) and Rio Tinto (-1.3%). Utilities stocks finished 0.6% lower and consumer discretionary stocks lost 1.3%. Brent crude futures fell 37 cents or 0.5% to USD80.21 per barrel while its West Texas equivalent lost 0.5% to trade at USD75.18 a barrel. OPEC+ will hold a meeting on Thursday to consider deepening and potentially extending supply cuts into 2024.

The context: RBA governor Michele Bullock will take part in a Hong Kong panel discussion tomorrow covering inflation, financial stability and employment. It's a big week for inflation data, with Australian monthly CPI print on Wednesday, before German and Spanish CPI later that day and US personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index overnight on Thursday. Preliminary US GDP data comes out overnight on Wednesday, a few hours before China manufacturing PMI. Healius, Ramsay Health and Link Administration will hold AGMs tomorrow with Harvey Norman, Lynas Rare Earths and Sandfire to follow on Tuesday.