ASX Futures were down 19 points or 0.26% as of 8:20 am this morning, pointing to a downward slope in early trading for the Aussie bourse.
A panel of analysts interviewed by Finder.com have overwhelmingly picked a rate hike pause for this month, with just one analyst of 38 breaking with the consensus.
As things stand, a majority (66%) of analysts also believe our current 4.10% interest rate is likely to be the peak, although not everyone agrees.
Mark Melatos, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Sydney, predicted a hold for September but thinks we are likely to see a peak rate of 5.1%.
"Inflation remains significantly above the RBA's target band," Melatos said. While it appears that the labour market might be starting to slacken, the RBA is still in catch-up mode with respect to matching their cash rate settings to the inflation reality.”
All-in-all, it seems very likely we’ll get another reprieve this month.
International markets
The US markets were closed for Labor Day on Monday. Futures for the Dow fell 0.2% while contracts for the S&P500 and Nasdaq both fell less than 0.1%.
European markets experienced more activity but trading was still subdued as some of the optimism around the effect of Chinese stimulus waned.
Travel, leisure and mining shares (sectors with high exposure to Chinese markets) gained more than 0.5%, buoyed by a rising iron ore price.
The Tech sector also gained about 0.5% on the back of semiconductor equipment maker ASML rising 0.8%.
European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde emphasised the importance of pinning inflation targets given the current fluctuations in energy prices and uncertainty in the geopolitical arena.
The continent-wide FTSEurofirst 300 index ended flat. In London, the UK FTSE 100 index fell by 0.2%.
Currencies and commodities
The US dollar gained in overnight trading.
The Euro dipped from US$1.0808 to US$1.0782, stabilizing near US$1.0795 later in the day. The Australian dollar slid from US64.79 cents to US64.51 cents and hovered around US64.60 cents. The Japanese yen also depreciated, moving from 146.12 to JPY146.50 per US dollar.
Oil prices rose overnight, with Brent crude gaining US45 cents or 0.5% to close at US$89.00 a barrel and US Nymex crude gaining by US43 cents or 0.5% to US$85.98 a barrel.
The market is expecting further tightening of supply from OPEC countries, which coupled with expectations US interest rates may have reached their peak, is bolstering oil prices.
Base metal prices took a downward turn. Copper futures declined by 0.5%, influenced by concerns about waning demand from China and rising London Metal Exchange inventories. Aluminium futures prices fell by 1.2%. Gold futures dropped by US$2.90 or 0.1% to US$1,964.20 an ounce, while spot gold was near US$1,938 an ounce.
Iron ore futures rose by US67 cents or 0.6% to almost five-month highs of US$114.66 a tonne in Singapore, buoyed by optimism over China's policy support for its beleaguered property sector.
The small cap market
The S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) gained 10.50 points or 0.37% yesterday to rest at 2,855.40 points.
You can read about the following and more throughout the day.