The ASX200 is expected to fall 1.85% on Monday, following US markets down as tech companies including Amazon and Intel reported weak results, raising further concerns about the state of the US economy. A disappointing reading in US jobs growth has also contributed to the fall.
On Friday, all three US futures ended the day with sharp falls, as contracts on the S&P 500 futures fell 1.1%, the Nasdaq dropped 1.6% and the Dow Jones plunged about 390 points.
Amazon shares fell more than 8% in premarket trading after the company’s revenue missed forecasts, as well as issuing a disappointing forecast for the current period. Alongside this, Intel registered a dramatic fall of 22% before the opening bell following disappointing quarterly results and after announcing plans to cut around 15K employees.
According to the non-farm payrolls data for July, the US economy added 114K jobs for that month – well below a downwardly revised 179K in June and forecasts of 175K. The reading was also the lowest level in three months, below the average monthly gain of 215K over the prior 12 months, and this indicates the labour market is in fact slowing down.
Over on the ASX, Talisman Mining Ltd (ASX:TLM) has acquired the Yarindury copper-gold project in New South Wales.
The project is located 30 kilometres east of Dubbo in the state’s highly prospective Macquarie Volcanic Arc.
Engineering and construction company Saunders International Ltd (ASX:SND) has secured a $31.5 million contract from Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) to oversee the CIL3 Tanks Replacement project at its Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines in Western Australia.
Saunders will be involved in reconstructing and upgrading six carbon-in-leach (CIL) tanks, along with the associated pipework, structural steel and interconnecting launders, within
a complex brownfield environment.
And LTR Pharma Ltd (ASX:LTP) has proscribed erectile dysfunction drug SPONTAN to its first patient under the TGA.
In forex, the Aussie is buying 65.1 US cents.
In commodities, brent crude was up more than half a percent to US$77.21, while iron ore was up 1.14 percent to US$104.00 per tonne at Singapore.
Gold was down 0.14 percent, reaching US$2,439 per ounce while US natgas futures registered a fall of more than one percent to US$1.94 per gigajoule.