Overnight: No Lead From Wall Street

American investors were celebrating Martin Luther King last night while European markets closed slightly lower as the world’s elite gathers in Davos, Switzerland.

Greg Peel is still on holidays. In the meantime, Jessica Amir from Bell Direct is providing a snapshot of insights and developments from overseas markets overnight.

By Jessica Amir, Bell Direct

The Australian share market will be searching for direction at the open today as global markets were very quiet overnight due to US markets being closed for the Martin Luther King Junior Public Holiday.

The Aussie futures are suggesting a nudge ahead of 0.10%/7-points which means we will continue to explore new record highs. Yesterday, the ASX200 added 0.22%/15 points following five straight days of record gains, closing at 7,080, after reaching a brand new record of 7.093 earlier.

In Europe, stocks closed mostly lower, with traders being cautious ahead of the annual World Economic Forum kicking off in Davos, Switzerland. Climate change and sustainable business are to be a key focus for delegates, along with global trade. The Stoxx 600 slipped -0.14%, UK’s FTSE  lost -0.3%, the French CAC fell -0.4% and the Germany DAX bucked the trend, rising 0.17%.

Gold trades steady at US$1,560 an ounce after reaching a two week high on Monday in the wake of a missile attack on a Yemen military training camp at the weekend. While buying in gold has also picked up ahead of Chinese New Year.

Crude Oil had a choppy session and is up 0.2%/US$0.12 to US$58.66 a barrel, reaching US$59.73 earlier on Monday, its highest level since 10 January. Production is being shaved down, which supports the price move. It comes after two large production bases in Libya began shutting down after forces led by the military commander Khalifa Haftar closed a pipeline, halting exports out of the country.

Iron ore last traded at US$94.81 a tonne.

Australian dollar is buying 68.73 US cents.

Today investors will be looking at

BHP has announced their 4Q19 operations results, which highlighted a rise in iron ore output on the half year and quarter. Iron ore output in the first half rose 2% to 121 million tonnes. Copper output was also higher over both periods, while energy coal output fell 12% in the six months. Over the full year though, production and cost guidance remained unchanged, and BHP is on track to deliver slightly higher production than last year. However, early indicative price action suggests its shares will see selling at the moment, which could see its shares lose -0.6% to $41.00.

Traders will also be looking at the bevy of broker upgrades and downgrades that have taken place. For instance, Dexus was upgraded to a ‘buy’ by UBS with a price target of $13.60 after the real estate group grew its logistics real estate portfolio and paid down debt. Dexus has traded positive every year since 2014 and hit an all time high of $13.96 in July last year. Yesterday it broke out and hit a four month high and closed at $12.46.

And the unemployment figures for the UK are out later today, with the employment rate tipped to remain at 3.8%. Also, keep an eye on Trump’s twitter account as he joins world leaders in Davos.