A two-day rally in share prices is set to end in Australia on Monday, with the equities market expected to open lower following a mixed end-to-the week on Wall Street.
The drop at the start of trading at 10 am AEST (12 pm GMT Sunday) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is estimated to be about 0.6%, based on ASX futures trading.
At the time of writing the S&P/ASX 200 index September share price index contract was trading 49 points under the prior settlement at 8,688.
Although the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% on Friday (Saturday AEST), the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices finished little changed, denying ASX investors a clear guide to pricing.
The S&P 500 rose just 0.01% and the Nasdaq Composite put on 0.05% after prices dropped in response to a report in the Financial Times that U.S. President Donald Trump was pressing for higher tariffs on European Union (EU) products.
The FT article, which said that the Trump administration was eyeing a minimum tariff of between 15% and 20% on any deal with the European bloc, sent markets lower before recovering partly.
"People are a little tired of trying to trade tariff headlines or deadlines, and people are more concerned with seeing the proof of this come to fruition through numbers," BNP Paribas Head of U.S. Equity and Derivative Strategy Greg Boutle was quoted in a Reuters story as saying.
The Australian share market recorded its most impressive performance in more than three months on Friday, rising 1.4% to a new high of 8,757.2 amid expectations of interest rate cuts.
In corporate news today, AMP (ASX: AMP) and South32 (ASX: S32) have issued quarterly reports.
In Australian fixed interest markets, Australian 10-year Government bond yields rose 0.14% to 4.354% and two-year rates increased 0.21% to 3.332%.
