Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au

Aaron Bunch
ASX to open flat as trade war worries grow

Concerns over the US-China trade war has set the Australian share market up for a weak start to trading on Monday following falls in US markets.

June 16, 2019

The Australian share market is tipped to have a lacklustre start to the week ahead after continued nervousness over the US-China trade war dampened US and European markets.

The worry has set the ASX up for a weak kickoff on Monday, which AMP Capital’s chief economist Shane Oliver expects to open flat to 10 points or 0.1 per cent up.

The ASX200 Futures is up eight points or 0.1 per cent.

“(We’ve got) a soft lead-in from Wall Street generally as trade issues continue to cause uncertainty for investors,” he told AAP on Sunday.

At the close on Friday, the Dow Jones index was down 0.1 per cent and the S&P500 was 0.2 per cent lower.

The ongoing concerns have also weighed on the Australian dollar, which fell 0.6 per cent against the greenback late on Friday after US retail trade figures for May were higher than expected.

“That was again trade-uncertainty weighing there and also the US saw some good economic data,” he said.

“Investors were starting to get worried about US economic growth and that was pushing the US (dollar) down.”

The Australian dollar is currently buying 68.6 US cents.

On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank will release the minutes of its last meeting, when it cut Australian interest rates.

This will be followed on Thursday by Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe’s speech.

Both are expected to be dovish ahead of another rate cut.

“I don’t think they’re going to change market expectations that much because the market is itself expecting more rates cuts,” Dr Oliver said.

The US Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday is also likely to result in a dovish statement but no interest rate cuts, which were expected Dr Oliver said.

“They’ll probably wait until their July or September meeting,” he said.

On the data front its a quiet week ahead, however, the release of global business confidence statements on Friday will be eagerly anticipated following the recent softening of business conditions.

In Australia, the release on Wednesday of skills vacancy figures for May are expected to show a weakening job market.

On Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed up 11.6 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 6,554 points at 1615 AEST, while the broader All Ordinaries was up 14.5 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 6,633.6.

For the week the ASX200 was up 110.1 points, or 1.71 per cent.

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