Good morning and welcome to another week on the ABC markets and finance blog.
Stephen Letts from ABC business team here, limbering up for a blow-by-blow coverage of the day’s events, where every post is hopefully a winner, but none should be construed as financial advice.
The ASX 200 looks likely to slip on opening, with the ASX SPI futures trading down 0.2% over the weekend after Wall Street closed lower.
While the S&P 500 gained 0.6% over the week (the ASX 200 was up 0.9%), it retreated on Thursday and Friday as a mild rotation out of tech stocks in general, and Nvidia in particular, continued.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2%, with the technology sector down 0.8% — the biggest loser among the index’s 11 sectors. The Nasdaq was also down 0.2% and the blue-chip Dow Jones was basically flat – albeit marginally in positive territory.
Europe was generally weaker.
The Eurostoxx 600 fell 0.7% (Germany -0.5%, France -0.6%), but the anxiety ahead of the French parliamentary elections has settled somewhat, and bond yields haven’t gone through the roof. The first of two rounds in French election will be run next Sunday.
Oil prices eased (Brent crude -0.6%) on Friday due to a strengthening US dollar and weaker demand signals from China and Europe. Over the week though, Brent crude was up 3%.
On the home front the federal government has agreed to a mandatory Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, which as its centrepiece will include multi-million fines for the likes of Woolworths and Coles for serious breaches.