Don’t be surprised if the Australian market drifts today after a less than positive ending to trading in New York this morning, thanks to the dipping oil price which dominated sentiment.
Despite a small rise in the futures market, investors, like their mates on Wall Street, will be more influenced by the slide in oil futures.
Wall Street dipped and ASX 200 futures trading has our market opening with a small gain of 3 points. After yesterday’s moves that probably won’t last.
In Australia an early rally yesterday ran out of steam during the afternoon, thanks to losses in energy stocks and some miners. The fall in the global oil prices won’t help trading today here for that reason.
The ASX got off to a good start, following strong leads from Wall Street, but fell sharply in the afternoon.
The ASX200 finished 0.1% lower at 4995.3, after earlier in the session rising as high as 5046.3 points, while the All Ordinaries also fell 0.1% to 5070.1.
As pointed out yesterday, the belief there will be a cap on oil production by Opec members At the April 17 meeting in Dohar, is fading with Iran determined to continue lifting production and Saudi Arabia telling the world it won’t agree unless other producers, including Iran, agree to limit output.
In New York West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery fell for a second day, dropping $US1.09, or 3%, to settle at $US35.70 a barrel—the lowest level since March 3. After a 4% slide on Friday, prices are down 7% in the past trading week.
In London, June Brent crude, dropped 98 cents, or 2.5%, to end at $US37.69 a barrel. That took its loss in the past trading week to more than 6%.
Gold fell to a month low after a Fed member suggested that solid economic data could see rates rise earlier than expected – seeing much of the recent US data – apart from jobs – has been weaker than expected, it was an odd thing for gold to take fright at.
Comex June gold futures lost $US4.20, or 0.3%, to settle at $US1,219.30, its lowest close since February 22, according to FactSet
Comex May silver slid 10 cents, or 0.7%, to settle at $US14.94 an ounce.
And Comex May copper sagged 2 cents, or 1% to settle at $US2.14 a pound, maintaining the downward trend of the past three weeks.
Asian equities trading though ended in the green (Hong Kong and Tokyo were closed) and after a negative start, most European markets opened lower, but then recovered to close higher – except the Italian and Spanish markets.
Wall Street closed lower after weaker oil prices overwhelmed other factors.
The Dow fell 55.75 points, or 0.3%, to close at 17,737.00, The S&P 500 Index dropped 6.65 points, or 0.3%, to close at 2,066.13, and the Nasdaq fell 22.75 points, or 0.5%, to finish at 4,891.80.
