With US markets closed tonight for the Columbus Day holiday, trading will be locally focused here and in Asia and Europe for the next day or so.
Of course local investors will have more than enough to worry them after Friday’s ANZ driven sell-off.
June 30 or trading updates this week from Bendigo and Adelaide as well as the NAB today and then the biggie – the Commonwealth Bank on Wednesday.
It will be reporting profits, dividends and possibly some sort of capital raising, if the chat from the markets is any guide.
Last week was mixed in the first week of August for shares with markets up in the Eurozone (+0.9%), Japan (+0.7%) and China (+2.2%).
But Wall Street lost around 1.3% to 1.7% on some earnings disappointments and falls in energy, media (and fears about future earnings growth from Apple) and biotech shares.
Australian shares slumped 3.9% due mostly to the $3 billion capital raising and disappointing earnings update from ANZ which whacked bank shares lower, especially on Friday when the broader market lost $A37 billion in value.
Bond yields fell in the US but rose in Europe and Australia and commodity prices remained under pressure as the $US rose marginally. Oil was down sharply.
Despite this the $A rose back above 74 US cents on Saturday, our time, as the RBA changed its view on the value of the Aussie dollar.
On Wall Street, US shares fell modestly on Friday, but that helped give the index its worst losing streak since the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis.
That was after the US jobs report for July matched market forecasts, boosting the chances for a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike in September.
The US added 215,000 jobs in July, largely matching expectations, and the unemployment rate stayed pat at 5.3%.
The Dow lost 46.37 points, or 0.3%, to end at 17,373.38, after having been down 141 points earlier in the session.
With seven straight days of losses, it’s the longest losing streak for the index since mid 2011 and the US debt ceiling crisis and downgrade of its credit rating by S&P.
The current losing streak has shaved nearly 380 points off the index, for a loss of 2.1% (the 2011 streak saw 6.7% cut from the index).
The S&P 500 ended down 5.99 points, or 0.3%, at 2,077.57, while the Nasdaq Composite was off 12.90 points, or 0.3%, to 5,043.54.
For the week, the S&P 500 fell 1.3%, the Dow was down 1.8% and the Nasdaq lost 1.7%.
This morning, the local market will start steady, but wary after no real gains on the share price futures contract on Friday night.
Investors are shell shocked after Friday’s sell-off, thanks to the thumbs down from fretting investors to the banking sector.
Australian shares lost 3.9% over the week after suffering their worst day in over three years on Friday, led by the sell-off in the banks.
Investors dumped ANZ shares on its return to trade after completing the bulk of its $3 billion capital raising.
The sour mood quickly spread to the rest of the sharemarket, which had been buffeted during the week by nervousness.
As a result, the ASX 200 index dropped 2.4% on Friday, wiping around $37 billion off the market’s total value in its worst day since May 2012.
The ASX 200 ended the week at 5474.8, the All Ordinaries fell 2.3% on Friday and 3.7% for the week to finish at 5472.3.
ANZ shares lost 7.5% for the day and 7.8% down for the week at $30.14.
The Commonwealth fell 3.8% on the day and 7.1% for the week to $81.30.
The National Australia Bank lost 2.3% on the day and 5.6% for the week at $32.82, and Westpac shed 3.3% for the day and 7.2% for the week to finish at $32.35.
