Futures suggest the ASX200 will open about 0.42% in front, following a 2% rally on the Nasdaq late last week thanks to strong earnings reports from the likes of Alphabet and Microsoft.
A lift here would be quite a turnaround from Friday’s jitters, which saw the Australian market plummet 1.4 per cent.
There’ll be a swathe of earnings emerging from the US over coming days, with companies including Apple, Amazon, Pfizer, McDonalds and Coca-Cola all due to report.
Back on home ground, Australian investors will be watching BHP Group (ASX:BHP) to see if it increases its bid for Anglo American after its first offer was rejected last week. The UK copper giant labelled the near $60 billion offer as ‘opportunistic’ and claimed it undervalued the business. BHP shares lost more than 4.5% after BHP announced the takeover proposal.
In other companies to watch: There’s a new listing on the ASX today, maintenance and engineering company Tasmea Group will trade under the ticker code TEA, after raising $59 million with shares priced at $1.56. Tasmea owns companies including Ice Engineering and Construction and Tasman Power in WA, after launching with the merger of Louminco and Whyalla Fabrications in South Australia in 2001.
ASX alternative asset management fund HMC Capital has grabbed a five per cent slice of east coast grain handler Graincorp (ASX:GNC); and, DiscovEx Resources (ASX:DCX) will be renamed Latitude 66 Ltd in June, if all goes well with its acquisition of Latitude 66 Cobalt. DiscovEx is shaking the can for $4 million with 20 cent shares to go through with the plan. The prospectus can be seen at HotCopper.
One Australian dollar is buying US65.3 cents, gold is selling at around US$2335 an ounce, iron ore’s off to a stronger start to the week at around US$110 a tonne, brent crude’s just under US$90 a barrel, and natural gas has recovered nearly three quarters of a per cent to US1.93 per million British thermal units.
That’s market open, happy Monday and happy trading.