The ASX will likely open slightly lower today, expected to lag behind small movements in the US indices, with ASX futures sitting down about 4.5 points, or less than 0.1% near 9 am AEDT.
US markets were mixed yesterday as quarterly earnings figures trickled through for investors to consider, with a technical glitch early in the day putting a further dampener on things with a brief halt in trading.
Quarterly numbers offered mixed results; 3M (NYSE:MMM) shares fell 6.2%, Verizon (NYSE:VZ) rose 2.0%, General Electric (NYSE:NYSE:GE) rose 1.2% and Travelers (NYSE:TRV) shares rose 3.7%.
Following yesterday’s gains, shares in semiconductor companies have eased in response to profit-taking, with the Dow closing higher by 104 points or 0.3% overall.
The S&P500 index fell by 0.1%, while the Nasdaq lost 0.3% or 30 points.
US government bond yields were also down 6 points to 3.46% with two-year yields falling 3 points to 4.21%.
European markets dip on rate rise fears
Although the euro-zone composite purchasing managers index rose from 49.3 to 50.2 in January, European share markets fell overall, on fears a stronger-than-expected economy will prompt the European Central Bank to lift rates.
The Energy and Healthcare sectors fell by 1.2%, the continent-wide FTSE300 index shed 0.3% and the UK FTSE 100 dropped 0.4%.
Reuters reports that shares in Swatch Group (SIX:UHR) rose 5.1% after the watchmaking giant indicated an expected recovery in demand from China.
US DOJ sues Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
The United States Department of Justice has taken tech giant Google to court in an antitrust lawsuit targeting the company’s anti-competitive practices in both its search engine and app store technology.
The DOJ is joined by eight states, all of which are accusing Google of illegally abusing a monopoly over online advertising.
The lawsuit said Google had “corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry by engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers and brokers to facilitate digital advertising”.
This marks the fifth antitrust lawsuit the US Government has brought against Google since 2020, in a growing effort by international lawmakers to bring giant tech companies’ monopolies over online information and commerce to an end.
Peter Schottenfels, a Google spokesman, said the lawsuit “attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive advertising technology sector”.
He stated it mirrored an “unfounded” lawsuit led by the state of Texas in 2020 and added that the DOJ’s latest suit would slow innovation and harm publishers.
Attorney General Merrick B Garland said Google had “engaged in exclusionary conduct to severely weaken, if not destroy, competition in the ad tech industry.”
“As detailed in our complaint, we allege that Google's anticompetitive conduct extends to three significant elements of the digital ad buying process,” Garland stated.
“As a result of this scheme, website creators earn less, and advertisers pay more. That means fewer publishers are able to offer internet users content without subscriptions, paywalls, or other forms of monetisation.”
Oil falls while gold rallies
Oil prices fell by about 2% overall yesterday, with investors uncertain how quickly the Chinese economy will return to peak demand levels.
In another blow to crude, an upcoming report on US oil inventories is expected to reveal a lift in stock by some 1 million barrels in the past week.
Brent crude fell by US$2.06 (A$2.92) or 2.3% to US$86.13 (A$122.21) while US Nymex fell by US$1.49 (A$2.11) or 1.8% to US$80.13 (A$113.70) a barrel.
On the other hand, the gold future price rose by 0.4% or US$6.80 (A$9.65) to US$1,935.40 (A$2745.64) an ounce, while spot gold was trading at US$1,937 (A$2747.91) near close of US markets.
Base metals were mixed, with US aluminium futures lifting 0.5% even as US copper futures price fell 0.3%.
Finally, iron ore futures rose by US$0.3 (A$0.43) a tonne to US$121.97 (A$173) per tonne.