Aussie shares are heading for a big fall when trading starts this morning on the ASX.
The share price futures contract is showing a 41 point fall – nasty – after Friday’s late sell-off on Wall Street which saw all parts of the bourse hammered lower in weak afternoon trading.
The Aussie dollar was up nearly half a cent over the week at 92.92 USc at the close early Saturday our time – it traded as high as 93.08c.
Friday’s weakness saw Nasdaq dip into the red, but the Dow and the S&P 500 ended the week with small gains.
Most markets around the globe had a fairly good week, but the Friday’s weakness in the US will change things for today, at least.
US shares rose 0.4% to 0.6% for the week, but the Nasdaq lost 0.7% of its value for the second down week in a row.
Eurozone shares rose 1.9%, Japanese shares gained 2.5%, Chinese shares rose 0.8% and Australian shares rose 1%.
The woes on Nasdaq meant for a rough day on Friday in US markets, which turned decisively down during the day after European and Asian markets had finished mostly higher.
The early positive catalyst in the morning was the March jobs report which was solid.
But that wasn’t enough to keep the market trading higher and as the selling intensified among the big cap tech momentum stocks (such as Facebook), the markets turned sharply lower.
By the end of trading, the Dow had dropped 159.84 points, or 1%, to 16,412.71 but was up 0.6% higher on the week.
Microsoft Corp and Visa Inc, down 2.8% and 3.4% respectively, lead the losses among the blue chips, with falls by stocks such as Facebook and Netflix helping pull the S&P 500 lower as well.
The S&P 500 ended the day 23.68 points, or 1.3%, lower at 1,865.09 at the close early Saturday, our time. The index added 0.4% over the week.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 110.01 points, or 2.6%, to 4,127.73 on Friday, and fell 0.7% for the week.
The March jobs data showed the US created 192,000 jobs in March, but another 37,000 were added to January and February (on top of extra jobs added in February for January).
The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.7% as more people went searching for jobs, a positive sign.
The market has been expecting 200,000 jobs, but in reality they got 229,000 including the revisions for the two preceding months.
In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.6% on Friday, its ninth positive day in a row.
The index also finished the week up by 1.6%, a third consecutive weekly gain.
The FTSE 100 in London rose by 0.7% to 6,695.55 on Friday, and ended the week up 1.2%.
European markets traded on the news of the good US jobs report, and were closing as the markets started selling off, led by Nasdaq.
In Asia, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 1.9% last week, bringing its two-week gain to 4.9%.
The Nikkei in Tokyo rose 2.4%, South Korea’s market ended up 0.4%, Australia was 1% higher, as was Singapore’s which rose 1.3%. Taiwan’s market rose more than 1% over the week.
But the gains came ahead of the US jobs report, and the sell-off Friday night, our time.
With the Aussie futures market signalling a slide here this morning, other markets in the region will also open weaker.
In Australia, the ASX 200 Index rose 55.9 points, or 1%, over the past week to 5422.8, while the All Ordinaries Index also added 1% to 5428.6.
The top 200 stocks and the All Ords both added 0.2% on Friday.
BHP Billiton led the index ending up 3.4% over the week to $37.75 on Friday.
In commodities, Comex gold futures ended higher in New York on Friday.
June gold futures added $US18.90, or 1.5%, to settle at $US1,303.50 an ounce.
That left gold up by around 0.7% for the week.
Comex May silver added 14c, or 0.7%, to end at $US19.95 an ounce.
That was up 0.8% for the week.
New York oil futures finished higher on Friday, settling above $US101 a barrel.
Crude for May delivery rose 85c, or 0.9%, to settle at $US101.14 a barrel. Prices lost 0.5% for the week.
In London, May Brent crude, the European benchmark, rose 57c, or 0.5%, to $US106.72 a barrel, down 1.3% on the week.
Elsewhere in metals trading, Comex copper futures for May delivery fell half a cent to $US3.02 a pound. Prices fell 0.6% over the week.
