Australian shares to open lower; earnings, RBA in focus
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The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open lower following a weak close on Wall Street on Friday, with local investors focused on the Reserve Bank’s rate decision and a big week for earnings.
The numbers: Updated at 7.25am AEDT:
- ASX futures: down 52 points or 0.61% at 8,456 points
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.37%, S&P 500 down 0.01%, Nasdaq up 0.41%.
- Europe: FTSE 100 down 0.37%, CAC 40 up 0.18%, DAX down 0.44%
- Spot gold: down 1.56% to USD2,882.53 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent down 0.37% to USD74.74/ barrel, US WTI down 0.77% to USD70.74/bbl
- AUD: up 0.02% at 63.53 US cents
- Bitcoin: down 0.57% to USD97,098.53.
The context: US stocks ended mixed on Friday, a day after US President Donald Trump unveiled reciprocal tariff plans but stopped short of imposing new ones. Data showed US retail sales fell more than expected in January, prompting a drop in US Treasury yields.
However, gains for Nvidia and Apple helped the Nasdaq 100 notch a record-high close, while Microsoft and Amazon ended lower.
What to watch: Quarterly update from Westpac and half-year results from Bendigo & Adelaide Bank, Lendlease, Bluescope, a2 Milk and GPT Group, among others.
The source: Bloomberg
