The Australian sharemarket is expected to open flat on Monday after last week ended with Wall Street near record levels, while trade tensions between the U.S. and Europe escalated over the weekend.
Futures are pointing to the S&P/ASX200 opening 1 point lower, at 8876, after a choppy session on Wall Street last Friday (US time) in which U.S. shares edged lower. The ASX chalked up five days in a row of gains last week.
Australian shares are expected to trade sideways on Monday.Credit: Getty Images
The wobbly day for stocks closed out a week of similar movements for major indexes amid profit reports from banks and updates on inflation.
Over the weekend, there was also an escalation in trade tensions between the U.S. and major European nations, after president Donald Trump announced rising tariffs on eight European nations until Greenland is sold to the US.
Major European Union states decried the tariff threats over Greenland as blackmail on Sunday. France proposed responding with a range of previously untested economic countermeasures.
As early trade kicked off in Asia-Pacific, the euro fell 0.2 per cent to around US$1.1572, its lowest since November. Sterling also dipped, while the yen firmed against the dollar.
In its final session of the week, the S&P 500 fell 4.46 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 6,940.01. It is sitting just below its record, which was set early last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 83.11 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 49,359.33. The Nasdaq composite fell 14.63 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 23,515.39. Each index notched weekly losses.
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Smaller company stocks fared better. The Russell 2000 eked out a 0.1 per cent, while also notching a 2 per cent gain for the week.
