Australian News Today

Live: ASX set to slide despite Wall Street rallying to a new record as another Chinese stimulus package disappoints

Live: ASX set to slide despite Wall Street rallying to a new record as another Chinese stimulus package disappoints

Wall Street’s rally shows little sign of running out of puff, with the S&P 500 briefly rising above 6,000 points for the first time, and still closing at a record high.

Fuelled by Donald Trump’s election win and the prospects of the Republican Party sweeping both houses of Congress, the S&P 500 finished 0.4% higher at 5,996 points, the blue-chip Dow gained 0.6%, while the Nasdaq picked up a more modest 0.1%.

For the week the S&P 500 picked up 4.6%, its biggest weekly jump in a year.

The small cap Russell 2000 had its best week (+8.5%) in more than four years, as the domestic-focused businesses are seen to benefit from the likely introduction of easier regulations and a lower exposure to a harsher regime of import tariffs.

Locally, the ASX 200’s response to Wall Street’s high-fives looks a bit muted, with futures trading pointing to a 0.4% drop on opening.

A new China debt package, with no direct stimulus on offer, announced on Friday hasn’t helped buoy sentiment on the ASX this morning.

Europe (-0.7%) and the UK (-0.8%) also managed to contain any excitement they may had about US political developments.

While the prospect of rate cuts has supported the US market’s momentum, lower expectations about the size and speed of the cuts have kept US Treasury yields at a four-month high, boosting the US dollar also to a four-month high and, of course, keeping downward pressure on the Aussie dollar.

The ongoing strength of the US dollar also put the brakes on gold’s rise, the precious metal dropping another 0.8% on Friday, and shedding almost 2% over the week, its biggest weekly decline since June.

The global oil benchmark, Brent Crude, slipped 2.3% to $73.84/barrel as traders viewed the new China debt package as doing little to stimulate short-term, or even medium-term, demand.

Recent Chinese customs data shows oil imports have now declined for six consecutive months.

The lack of direct financial stimulus in the China package also weighed on bulk commodities.

Iron ore slumped 2.5% on Friday and was followed down the gurgler by the industrial metals such as aluminium (-2.9%), zinc (-2.5%) and copper (-2.3%), not great news for the mining sector today.

On the flip side, Bitcoin, seen as a beneficiary of the so-called “Trump trade”, has put on almost 10% over the past month and is now trading at about $US80,000 — a record level it briefly breached on the weekend.