The Australian share market is expected to open 0.2% lower on Monday following a weaker close on Wall Street as soft United States jobs data unnerved investors looking forward to an interest rate cut.
That is the extent of the fall indicated by Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) futures trading when the market reopens at 10 am AEST (12 am GMT Sunday).
The S&P/ASX 200 share price index (SPI) September contract was trading 15 points under the previous settlement at 8,363 points, at the time of writing.
The direction was set in New York on Friday (Saturday AEST), where stocks ended down as investors balanced economic worries with hopes of interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve after data showed job growth weakened in August.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5% while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices each lost 0.03%.
U.S. employment growth of 22,000 in August trailed forecasts of 75,000, leading markets to price in a high probability of a 25 basis point rate reduction in September.
"The payroll report today confirms a softening labour market and justifies a rate cut at the Fed meeting later this month," U.S. Bank Asset Management Head of Capital Markets Research and Portfolio Construction Bill Merz was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
A lower opening will erase some of the gains from Friday when the S&P/ASX 200 index added 0.5% to 8,871.2 points.
Among the companies that will come under additional price pressure today will be those going ex-dividend, including HUB24 (ASX: HUB), Super Retail Group (ASX: SUL) and AUB Group (ASX: AUB).
In fixed interest markets, the direction of Australian Government bond yields diverged with two-year rates rising 0.06% to 3.372% and 10-year rates dropping 0.16% to 4.299%.
