I'm back on deck. Endless thanks to @Endless for steering the ship during my holiday and subsequent break (literally) I am on a long road to recovery but am making some discernible progress.
Strong leads from international markets are expected to send Australian shares into positive territory when trade resumes on Monday.
AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver says the benchmark S&P/ASX200 is likely to gain at least 20 points at the open, after better-than-expected jobs figures buoyed US stocks on Friday and Eurozone shares closed 0.6 per cent higher.
The payroll report in the US, which showed jobs rose by 228,000 in November, helped push the benchmark S&P 500 up by 0.55 per cent.
"We're seeing a continued goldilocks pattern of data which is not too hot and not too cold," Dr Oliver told AAP.
This week, investors will be keeping a keen eye on the US Federal Reserve's meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, from which the Fed is expected to deliver a quarter per cent rate hike at about 6am on Thursday by Sydney time.
Dr Oliver said people will also be keen to know if the Fed plans to lift rates four times instead of three in 2018, which could dampen the market.
Closer to home, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will release employment data for November on Thursday, which is expected to show 19,000 jobs were added and the unemployment rate remained at 5.4 per cent.
The ABS will also release home prices for the September quarter and lending finance figures for October on Tuesday.
The National Australia Bank business survey for November comes out on Tuesday and consumer confidence data for December via Westpac and the Melbourne Institute will be released on Wednesday.
Reserve Bank of Australia head Philip Lowe, RBA Head of Payments Policy Tony Richards and RBA Assistant Governor (Financial Markets) Chris Kent will also all speak publicly on Wednesday.
The Australian share market ended the day comfortably higher on Friday, with the benchmark S&P/ASX200 stock index up 0.28 per cent at 5,994.4 points.
The local currency was trading at 75.14 US cents.
U.S. stocks advanced on Friday, buoyed by a solid payrolls report for November that locked in expectations for an interest rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve next week and raised optimism about economic prospects in 2018.
Technology stocks such as Microsoft (MSFT.O), Apple (AAPL.O) and Oracle (ORCL.N) helped pace the advance, as they continued to rebound from a selloff in the sector earlier in the week.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 228,000 jobs last month amid broad gains in hiring as the distortions from the recent hurricanes faded, Labor Department data showed, topping expectations calling for a rise by 200,000 jobs.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.2 percent in November after dipping 0.1 percent the prior month, but fell shy of the estimated 0.3 percent rise.
“It’s hard to find much fault with it. I guess if you are looking to find fault it would be that the wage growth isn’t as fast as we would like it to be and came up a little bit short,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.
“It’s a great report overall.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 117.68 points, or 0.49 percent, to 24,329.16, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 14.52 points, or 0.55 percent, to 2,651.5 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 27.24 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,840.08.
For the week, the Dow rose 0.4 percent, the S&P advanced 0.35 percent and the Nasdaq fell 0.11 percent.
The jobs data cemented expectations the Fed will raise rates at its meeting next week as traders now see a 96.2-percent chance of a quarter-point hike, according to Thomson Reuters data.
“The focus is moving to what the Fed is going to do next week, what the composition of the board is going to look like,” said Rob Stein, CEO of Astor Investment Management in Chicago.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation to fund the federal government for two more weeks, averting a government shutdown while Congress negotiated a longer-term budget deal, temporarily removing a potential headwind for stocks.
Microsoft rose 2.02 percent as the biggest boost to the S&P 500. The S&P technology sector .SPLRCT was up 0.4 percent and was on track for its fourth straight day of gains, erasing all of the nearly 2-percent decline suffered by the sector to start the week.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.47-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.23-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
About 5.85 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, compared with the 6.53 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.
Source: Netwealth Morning Business Roundup
Since I am incapacitated, breakfast is courtesy of my personal master chef, Gustav. Vege cous cous bowl and melon juice.
Happy trading and be nice to each other! We're all here for the same reason. We go about it in different ways and that needs to be respected.
