Australian shares are expected to open barely changed on Tuesday after a weaker night in Europe and with United States markets closed for the Labor Day holiday.
Futures trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) showed the S&P/ASX 200 September share price index (SPI) contract trading just eight points below the previous settlement at 8,886 points, at the time of writing.
If this pattern is carried across the day the losses from the previous day are unlikely to be recouped on the second day of a week in which important economic data will be published.
United States share markets were closed on Monday (Tuesday AEST), leaving the direction for trading in Australia to be set in Europe, where defence stocks supported shares, which finished marginally higher on Monday.
Major defence companies like Rolls-Royce, Rheinmetall and Hensoldt rose by between 3% and 5% after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was reported to have said Europe was preparing "pretty precise plans" to send troops to Ukraine.
"The possibility of additional support for Ukraine can only be beneficial as far as (European) stocks are concerned and investors are really buying into that," City Index Senior Market Analyst Fiona Cincotta was quoted as saying in a Reuters story.
Major U.S. stock futures provided few cues for investors, trading inside a narrow range in holiday trading on Monday night (Tuesday AEST).
The Australian market had dipped to the lowest point in two weeks on Monday, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling 0.5% to 8,927.7.
June balance of payments and government finance data is scheduled to be published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today, with national accounts numbers to follow on Wednesday.
Stocks in focus will include Collins Foods (ASX: CKF), which provided a trading update at its annual general meeting, and Santos (ASX: STO), Wesfarmers (ASX: WES) and Woolworths (ASX: WOW), which trade ex-dividend from today.
In fixed interest markets, the Australian Government bond yield curve tilted up as two-year rates dipped by 0.36% to 3.358% and 10-year rates edged up by 0.14% to 4.341%.
