Following a mixed session on Wall Street overnight, the local market is set to open lower this morning. The ASX 200 futures were trading 12 points lower, down 0.16%, as of 9:00 am AEDT.
The Dow Jones fell 0.4% while the Nasdaq inched 0.1% higher. The S&P 500 finished down 0.2% after trading as much as 0.70% lower, while the Russell 2000 small cap index underperformed as small caps came under pressure, losing 1.1%.
All eyes will be on the release of the November consumer price indicator report this morning, which is set for release at 11.30 am AEDT.
UBS expects CPI to be 0.6% higher, month on month, but in annual terms, it expects a drop to 4.6%, down from 4.9% in October. Yet it notes that the strength in November retail sales, as reported yesterday, does suggest some “lingering inflation”.
What happened overnight?
Here’s what we saw (source Commsec):
US markets
US sharemarkets were mixed on Tuesday as an uptick in US Treasury yields pressured some megacaps and traders scaled back expectations for an early start to interest rate cuts ahead of key US inflation reports due out later this week.
- The Dow Jones index fell by 158 points or 0.4% after being down as much as 310 points.
- The S&P 500 index dipped 0.2%.
- The Nasdaq index added 14 points or 0.1%.
Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) lost 0.2% and 2.3% respectively, while chip stock Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) shed 1.9%. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) fell by 0.8%. But Nvidia traded 1.7% higher, reaching a fresh all-time high. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) was up 1.5% along with Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which also rose 1.5%.
Shares of the streaming giant Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) slipped 0.6% following a downgrade by Citi to neutral from buy.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) shed 1.4% as the US National Transportation Safety Board continued its probe into a recent mishap.
Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) surged 21.8% after a news report that Hewlett Packard Enterprise was in talks to buy the networking product maker in a US$13 billion deal. The server maker dropped 8.9%.
European markets
European sharemarkets slipped on Tuesday, as investors turned risk-off with government bond yields across Europe rising, though advancing heavyweight healthcare stocks helped limit some losses.
- The continent-wide FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 0.2%.
- In London, the UK FTSE 100 index dipped 0.1%.
Basic resources led sectoral declines, falling 1.4%, while banks lost 0.9%, snapping a three-day winning streak. Keeping a lid on losses, healthcare stocks extended gains to a second consecutive day, climbing 0.7%, hovering at a near 17-week high hit in the previous session.
Commodities
Global oil prices climbed about 2% on Tuesday as the Middle East crisis and a Libyan supply outage pared the previous day's heavy losses. Prices were supported by the closure of Libya's 300,000 barrels per day Sharara oilfield, one of Libya's largest, due to political protests.
- The Brent crude price rose by US$1.47 or 1.9% to US$77.59 a barrel.
- The US Nymex crude price gained US$1.47 or 2.1% to $72.24 a barrel.
Base metal prices were mixed on Tuesday.
- Copper futures dipped 1.3%.
- Aluminium futures gained 0.6%.
Gold price:
- The gold futures price fell by US50 cents or less than 0.1% to US$2,033 an ounce on Tuesday.
- Spot gold was trading near US$2,029 an ounce at the US close.
On Tuesday, iron ore futures slid US35 cents or 0.2% to US$140.52 a tonne, down for a fourth day, as new home sales across eight key Chinese cities almost halved in the week to January 7, according to a Mysteel report.
Currencies
Currencies were weaker against the US dollar in European and US trade.
- The Euro fell from US$1.0961 to US$1.0910 and was near US$1.0930 at the US close.
- The Aussie dollar dipped from US67.17 cents to US66.76 cents and was near US66.85 cents at the US close.
- The Japanese yen eased from 143.57 yen per US dollar to JPY144.61 and was near JPY144.50 at the US close.
What’s on today?
11:30 am: Australia Monthly CPI Indicator (Nov)
On the small cap front
The S&P ASX Small Ordinaries gained 1.25% yesterday, while the ASX 200 ended 0.93% higher.
You can read more about the following throughout the day.
- Reward Minerals Ltd (ASX:RWD) is seeking to raise $22.785 million via an entitlement offer to complete the acquisition of the Beyondie SOP Project and commence R&D activities at the site.
- Globe Metals & Mining Ltd (ASX:GBE) has appointed Paul Smith as its chief operating officer effective immediately.
- Kali Metals Ltd (ASX:KM1) announces that preliminary exploration programs completed pre-IPO have identified and sampled lithium-bearing pegmatites across multiple locations within the Higginsville District Scale tenement holding.
- Maximus Resources Ltd (ASX:MXR, OTC:MXRRF) has defined a number of high-priority lithium targets at its Lefroy Lithium Project joint venture with the South Korean Government mining corporation KOMIR, on receiving assay results from the first phase of a project-wide soil geochemistry program.