Record highs on Wall Street have failed to impress traders pricing Australian shares with the key market index expected to open slightly lower on Monday.
A small drop in the ASX 200 has been flagged by trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), which priced the June futures contract three points lower at 8,798 points ahead of the 10:00 am AEST (12:00 am GMT Sunday) market start.
This would extend an ASX losing streak that stood at four sessions when dealings ended on Friday, and is at odds with the trend in New York, where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes closed at their highest ever levels on Friday (Saturday AEST).
It comes as New South Wales and Western Australia mark ANZAC Day with public holidays, and at the start of a week including the publication of inflation data for March on Wednesday.
Also out this week are quarterly reports from Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS) on Wednesday and Woolworths (ASX: WOW) on Thursday, and half-year results from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) on Friday.
Stocks in the United States were boosted by hopes for an end to hostilities between the United States and Iran and a continued surge in the prices of technology companies.
Although the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2%, the S&P 500 jumped 0.8%, and the Nasdaq surged 1.6%, both to new highs, on Friday.
"The Iran thing feels kind of tenuous, we've had a lot of back and forth. I assume that will continue, but for now, some rays of sunlight," Argent Capital Management portfolio manager Jed Ellerbroek was quoted as saying in a Reuters article.
But optimism about a resolution to Middle East tensions weakened over the weekend after the U.S. pulled out of planned talks with Iran, which instead met with Pakistani officials.
Australian shares had eased on Friday with the ASX 200 Index losing 0.1%, bringing the fall over the week to 1.8%.
In fixed interest markets, Australian Government bond yields dropped, particularly at the shorter end of the yield curve, with two-year rates diving 1.14% to 4.666% and 10-year rates easing 0.40% to 4.957% at the time of writing.
