Fears of a new trade war weaken ASX



[ad_1]

The Australian stock market should start the week down after worries over the US-China trade war, which caused a sharp fall in Wall Street.

Donald Trump's recent decision to impose 10% tariffs on goods of a value of 300%, scared investors, effectively imposing all Chinese exports to the United States.

At closing on Friday, the S & P 500 was down 21.51 points or 0.7 and the Dow had dropped nearly 100 points or 0.4%.

AMP Capital's chief economist, Shane Oliver, said that ASX's worry was preparing for a weak start to Monday's game, which he hopes to open by 20 points, that is 0.3%.

"The reason our futures market has not shrunk so much, is because our market has more defensive stocks out there … like telecom operators, utilities, trusts real estate investment, "he told AAP Sunday.

"Investors tend to like them every time the stock markets are down, so we tend not to go down as much as Wall Street."

However, Dr. Oliver said that increased trade could dampen demand for Australian exports if the United States, China and global economic growth were affected.

"This is the main threat to Australia and the reason our stock market crashed on Friday, and the fall of the Australian dollar," he said.

The drop in the price of iron ore after the reintegration of Brazilian miner Vale into the market is also likely to weigh on the Australian equity market, said Dr Oliver.

In the coming week, all eyes will be on interest rates after Tuesday's Reserve Bank of Australia board meeting.

"I think they will leave interest rates unchanged (at 1%) but they will probably indicate that they are ready to do more if needed," said Dr. Oliver.

Next are the questions and answers from RBA Governor Philip Lowe, who meet every six months with the Parliamentary Committee on the Economy.

Dr. Oliver said that Mr. Lowe would probably indicate that he remains confident in the economic outlook, but that the unemployment rate is higher than desired by the RBA, it is likely that the bank leaves the door open to further declines in interest rates.

On Tuesday, Australian trade figures are expected to post good news, but they will be followed on Wednesday by housing finance figures for June, which, according to Dr. Oliver, will likely be low.

[ad_2]
Source link