Australian shares to open lower, Wall Street drops on trade uncertainty

The news: The Australian sharemarket is set to open lower after Wall Street declined, with investors turning jittery over the current uncertainty surrounding US trade policy.

The numbers: Updated at 7.25am AEDT:

• ASX futures: down 63 points or 0.78% at 8,035 points
• Wall Street: Dow Jones down 1.09%, S&P 500 down 1.79%, Nasdaq down 2.50%
• Europe: FTSE 100 down 0.83%, CAC 40 up 0.29%, DAX up 1.47%
• Spot gold: down 0.17% to USD2,914.40 per ounce
• Oil prices: Brent up 0.38% to USD69.56/bbl, US WTI up 0.20% to USD66.44/bbl
• AUD: down 0.01% at 63.35 US cents
• Bitcoin: down 1.69% to USD89,110.30.

The context: All three major US stock indices are trading lower, with the Nasdaq set to drop 10% from its December 16 closing level, marking a correction. It came after US President Donald Trump announced that goods from Mexico covered by the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement will be exempted for a month from the 25% tariffs but made no mention of a parallel suspension for Canada. All 11 sectors on the benchmark S&P 500 index were trading lower, with the biggest losses in consumer discretionary, real estate and technology equities.

What to watch: Monthly Household Spending data for January to be released at 11.30am.