Australian shares set to drop after choppy Wall Street session
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to start lower after a choppy Wall Street session where investors were in cautious mode ahead of key earnings and central bank decisions.
The numbers: The Dow Jones index ended 0.12% higher, while the broader S&P 500 edged up 0.08% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced just 0.07%. In the local market, ASX 200 futures were down 55 points or 0.69% to 7,900 points at 7:00am AEST on Tuesday.
The context: US stocks closed barely higher as investors held their breath ahead of a raft of big technology company earnings, a Federal Reserve policy decision on interest-rate cuts, and key US labour data, all due this week.
Investors are hoping that the Fed will end its meeting on Wednesday with a signal that it is preparing for a September rate cut in its policy verdict. On Friday investors will closely monitor the July non-farm payrolls report for signs of possible weakening in the US labour market.
In the local market, the focus is on the June quarter inflation data on Wednesday that will determine the probability of an interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank next month.
What they said: "Markets are largely in wait-and-see mode. We have big economic news this week, both the Fed meeting Wednesday and the jobs report on Friday. We also have huge earnings reports coming out of mega cap technology," Mona Mahajan, principal and senior investment strategist at Edward Jones, told Reuters.
The source: Reuters
