Global Markets Weaken Into US Holiday Break

By Glenn Dyer | More Articles by Glenn Dyer

Sharemarkets will trade blind today, tonight and tomorrow with America on its three day Memorial Day break, meaning investors will not get a real lead as to sentiment until Tuesday night, Wednesday morning.

The confusion about the US North Korea summit continues, thanks to President Trump while oil prices will remain under pressure with OPEC and Russia talking about reducing the size of the daily production cap.

That story hit shares hard on Friday.

Eurozone shares fell 0.1% on Friday and the US S&P 500 lost 0.2% led down by energy stocks as the oil price fell 4% after Saudi Arabia indicated that OPEC and Russian oil supply would likely be increased.

The soft global lead saw ASX 200 futures fall 30 points or 0.5% pointing to a fall in the ASX at the open later today

Friday’s fall trimmed Wall Street’s weekly gain to 0.3% gain, but Eurozone shares fell 1.3%, Japanese shares fell 2.1%, Chinese shares lost 2.2% and Australian shares fell 0.9%.

Bond yields continued to blow out in Italy but fell elsewhere helped by safe haven demand.

Commodity prices were mixed with gold and metals up but iron ore down (see separate stories) and oil down. The $A managed a small rise despite a further rise in the $US.

The Dow fell 58.67 points, or 0.2%, to 24,753.09 on Friday. The S&P 500 closed down 6.43 points, or 0.2%, at 2,721.33 while the Nasdaq, added 9.42 points, or 0.1%, to finish the week at 7,433.85.

For the week, the Dow gained 0.2%, the S&P 500 was up 0.3%, while the Nasdaq jumped 1.1%.

About Glenn Dyer

Glenn Dyer has been a finance journalist and TV producer for more than 40 years. He has worked at Maxwell Newton Publications, Queensland Newspapers, AAP, The Australian Financial Review, The Nine Network and Crikey.

View more articles by Glenn Dyer →