The Australian stock market is expected to open flat today, with ASX futures dropping 41 points or 0.55% to 7,358 early this morning.
Overnight on Wall Street it was a mixed session, with the Dow up 0.2% while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq went the other way, down 0.3% and 0.4% respectively.
Bitcoin lost a little and was down 0.02% to $US29,208 early this morning, while Meta was one of the few tech stocks to hold ground (up 1.3%) where others dipped (Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) were all down between 0.4 and 1.5%).
Aussie dollar slumps
The RBA’s decision to hold the cash rate yesterday was welcomed with a sigh of relief by many Australians who might be eyeing the fixed-rate mortgage cliff as it approaches.
But the decision didn’t help everyone – it contributed to a sharp decline in the value of the Australian dollar against the greenback.
The Aussie dollar slipped from 66.74 US cents to 66.01 US cents and was close to 66.14 US cents at the end of the day, aided and abetted by US confidence in a softer landing, which buoyed the US dollar.
Manufacturing data out of China, which doesn’t look good, didn’t help the dollar’s cause either.
Currencies, crude and commodities
It wasn’t just the Aussie dollar that slid in European and US trade. All currencies were weaker against the US dollar overnight. The Euro declined from US$1.0999 to US$1.0951 and closed near US$1.0980 in the US session.
Similarly, the Japanese yen dipped from 142.53 yen per US dollar to JPY143.53 and hovered around JPY143.35 at the US close.
During Tuesday's trading session, global oil prices experienced a decline due to several factors. The strength of the US dollar, investor profit-taking and technical barriers hindered further advances.
The Brent crude price dropped by 52 US cents or 0.6%, settling at $84.91 US a barrel, while the US Nymex crude price shed 43 US cents or 0.5%, closing at US$81.37 a barrel.
In the commodities market, base metal prices were affected by weak data from China and the eurozone, indicating poor demand.
The copper futures price slid 2.5% and the aluminium futures price fell by 1.4%. Gold futures experienced a decline of US$30.40 or 1.5%, reaching US$1,978.80 an ounce. Spot gold was trading near US$1,944 an ounce at the US close.
Iron ore futures also suffered a setback, shedding US$4.14 or 3.7% to US$108.32 a tonne.
The decline followed data revealing a one-third plunge in the value of new home sales by the biggest 100 developers in China during July compared to the same period a year earlier.
What’s happening in small caps?
The S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries closed at 2,909.50 yesterday, up 0.59% on the previous day.
Making news this morning, which you can read more about throughout the day with Proactive are: