Australian market expected to open higher 30/10/19

Australian shares again inched higher, extending their run to a seventh straight session — the longest winning streak since early April.  

Though the S&P/ASX 200 rose as much as 0.3% in early trading, the index closed just 4.7 points higher at 6745.4.  

Gains by miners buoyed the index, helped by a rebound in technology companies. Coles also helped, with shares gaining 3.1% after the company posted higher first-quarter sales. Still, the heavily weighted big banks eased slightly ahead of the start of second-half earnings this week, and energy and utilities stocks also lost ground.  

 

U.S. stocks intraday inched higher a day after the S&P 500 closed at a record, as investors sifted through a heavy batch of earnings reports and awaited key economic data later this week.  

The broad stock-market index ticked up 0.2%, building on Monday’s high – the index’s first record since July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 36 points, or 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.3% as tech stocks stumbled in the wake of Alphabet’s disappointing earnings report.  

Both the Dow and Nasdaq are within 1% of their July highs. Major stock indexes have been largely rangebound the past few months, and observers
aren’t convinced yet that the range has been broken with the latest move up.  

 

Gold futures fell for a second session in a row, settling at their lowest in a week, as strength in the U.S. stock market lured investors away from the precious metal, a day ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates.  

 

 

U.S. oil futures finished lower, but off the session’s worst levels, as traders weighed forecasts for a weekly rise in domestic crude supplies.  
 

The American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group, is expected to release its estimate of last week’s inventories to members after oil futures settle. It’s watched as a guide to the Energy Information Administration’s official tally due Wednesday morning.

Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts look for the EIA to report U.S. crude
inventories rose by 2.5 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 25, while gasoline stocks are forecast to fall by 2.5 million barrels. Distillate inventories are expected to show a drop of 2.4 million barrels.  

 

 

The ICE Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of six others, is less than 2% higher than where it started the year.  
The measure was recently down 0.1% at 97.69 and has largely stayed between 96 and 99 for much of 2019.  

While most market participants believe the Fed will announce its third interest-rate cut of the year on Wednesday, signs that the central bank is done reducing rates for now could jolt the dollar higher, investors said. Lower rates tend to make the currency less attractive to yield-seeking investors.  

 Most European markets ended broadly in the red as political uncertainty weighs on the U.K.  
The Stoxx Europe 600 dropped 0.2%, the FTSE 100 was off 0.3%, the DAX lost 0.02% but the CAC-40 gained 0.2%.  

U.K. stocks were lower in the face of a potential general election in December, though sterling only managed modest gains.  

 Across Asian markets, the picture was mixed, with the Nikkei 225 index up while the Shanghai Composite gauge was down.  

In Japan, the Nikkei Stock Average ended up 0.5% at 22974.13 as investors focused on Japanese corporate earnings. Some communications stocks ended higher, with Softbank Group gaining 2.6%, NTT Docomo up 1.4% and KDDI 1.0% higher.  

South Korean stocks closed flat, with the benchmark Kospi edging down 0.91 point, or 0.04%, to 2092.69. Trading was mixed, with tech shares leading the losses while auto stocks gained. U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks that a partial trade deal with China may come next month buoyed investor sentiment, but caution before the Fed meeting and release of domestic and U.S. macro data capped the upbeat mood, Kiwoom Securities said.  

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gave up early gains to end 0.4% lower at 26786.76. The index will likely remain below the 27000 level, and the earliest potential breakthrough may come only after the Fed rate decision, due Thursday, said CMB International. Tech companies dragged the market lower, with heavyweight Tencent losing 1.6%.