Having just come off a five-session streak of gains, the ASX200 is set to climb today, with ASX Futures indicating a 14-point or 0.2% upswing in morning trading.
With such a positive start to the week, it’s possible that the ASX will follow the S&P500 to new heights this year – the bourse is currently sitting just 74 points of its all-time high.
The release of fourth-quarter consumer price index data this Wednesday is likely to have a powerful effect on the ASX’s momentum, alongside the US Fed’s anticipated funds rate decision on Thursday morning.
US and European markets
The S&P500 was unable to add a sixth session of progress so its five-day streak, dragged down by big tech stocks of all descriptions to dip 0.1% below its all-time high.
It was earning seasons bloodletting in the US last week; Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) shed 11.9%, chip manufacturing equipment company KLA Corp (NASDAQ:KLAC, ETR:KLA) dropped 6.6% and the world's largest payments processor Visa (NYSE:V) declined 1.7%, all for revenue-related reasons.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) dipped 0.9% ahead of its quarterly report but Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) bucked the trend to add 0.3% to its share price, having lost 12% the day before. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index dipped 2.9% after closing at a record high on Wednesday.
Finally, American Express (NYSE:AXP) hit a new record high with a 7.1% jump after it forecast a higher-than-expected annual profit.
The Dow Jones hit an all-time high last week, rising 60 points or 0.2%, while the S&P500 slipped 0.1%. The Nasdaq shed 55 points or 0.4%, dragged lower by tech.
Looking at the full picture last week, the Dow added 0.7%, the S&P500 1.1% and the Nasdaq 0.9% to notch a third week of overall gains.
In Europe, share markets gained more than 1% last week.
Leading the surge was LVMH, the world's premier luxury group, which jumped 12.8%, fuelled by a 10% increase in fourth-quarter sales.
French spirits producer Remy Cointreau also gained 15.2%, having reported marginally lower declines in sales than expected.
Overall, the FTSE300 rose 1.1% to hit a 2-year high and the FTSE100 gained 1.45%. For the week, the FTSE300 added 3.1% and the FTSE100 2.3%, its first weekly gain in a year and largest in more than four months.
Currencies and commodities
There was mixed movement against the US dollar in last session’s trading.
The Euro lifted from US$1.0811 to US$1.0882 and closed around US$1.0850. The Aussie fell from US66.08 cents to a session low of US65.75 cents at the US close and the Japanese yen followed suit, slipping from 147.57 yen per US dollar to JPY148.18 and sitting near JPY148.15 at the US market close.
Global oil prices reached a 2-month high with a 1% rally on Friday, prompted by conflict between US military forces and Houthi militants in the Red Sea.
Brent rose US$1.12 or 1.4%, closing at US$83.55 per barrel, while Nymex increased by US65 cents or 0.8%, reaching $78.01 per barrel – both benchmarks rose more than 6% over the week.
Base metal prices showed varied results on Friday. Copper futures fell by 0.4% but were up 1.7% over the week. In contrast, aluminium futures climbed by 1.4%, accruing a 4.6% increase for the week.
The gold futures price marginally dropped by US50 cents or less than 0.1% to US$2,017.30 an ounce, while spot gold was trading around US$2,018 an ounce at the US close. Over the week, gold declined by 0.6%.
Iron ore futures saw a minimal increase of just US1 cent or less than 0.1% to US$135.55 a tonne but experienced a slight weekly drop of 0.2%.
On the small cap front
The Small Ordinaries added 0.39% or 11.4 points on Friday, closely following the ASX200’s 6.20 points or 0.48% gain on the same day.
You can read about the following and more throughout the day on our website.