Local shares to slide at the open: David Murray, John Fraser and Boe Pahari have all resigned from their positions at AMP

Local shares are set to start the week in negative territory despite a strong finish to the week on Wall Street. In the US stocks rose on Friday lifted by strong economic data ending a week that saw the broader market reach record levels. The S&P 500 gained 0.7 per cent for the week while the Nasdaq added over 2.5 per cent in that time. The main catalyst of those gains has been big moves in Tech stocks. Apple rose 8.2 per cent last week and became the first publicly listed company in the U.S. to reach a market valuation of $2 trillion. Shares in the iphone maker rose 5.1 per cent on Friday to an all-time high, building on this week’s strong gain. Deere and Foot Locker were also among the top movers jumping 4.4 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively following better-than-expected quarterly results.
Meantime, activity levels at both US factories and among services sector firms picked up substantially in August, IHS Markit showed U.S. manufacturing activity hit its highest level in 19 months while services were at their highest level in 17 months. And, existing-home sales for July per cent. The average selling price for homes also hit an all-time high, jumping to $304,100.

In breaking news David Murray, John Fraser and Boe Pahari have all resigned from their positions at AMP following an investigation into the wealth manager's culture that revealed sexual harassment complaints against top executives.

Markets

To the figures from around the globe: Wall Street closed higher on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7 per cent to close at 27,930, the S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to close at 3397 and the NASDAQ closed 0.4 per cent higher at 11,312.

European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE lost 0.2 per cent, Paris dropped 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.5 per cent lower.

Asian markets closed higher, Nikkei added 0.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.3 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.5 per cent.

Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.2 per cent fall.

On Friday, the Australian share market fell 9 points to close at 6111.

Local economic news

Today the ABS releases a report on the household Impacts of COVID-19 Survey for June tomorrow there are a number of weekly indicators including CBA data on Credit and debit spending. On Wednesday Construction work done is due from the ABS on Thursday the ABS releases the Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure as well as data on the Business Impacts of COVID-19. Finally on Friday the latest estimates of regional population by age and sex for 2019 is due out.

Company news

New Zealand telco Chorus has reported $52 million in net profit for the 2020 financial year just shy of the $53 million made last year.The company posted earnings of $648 million which was in line with February’s guidance of $640 – $655. The company says while the impact of COVID-19 had a negative financial impact on Chorus’ EBITDA in FY20, it has accelerated some positive underlying trends that support the business. Shares in Chorus (ASX:CNU) closed 0.83 per cent higher at $7.29 on Friday.

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:35 AM was buying 71.65 US cents, 54.76 Pence Sterling, 75.78 Yen and 60.75 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron Ore has lost 1.5 per cent to US$127.38.
Iron Ore futures suggest a 0.5 per cent fall.
Gold has added $0.50 to US$1947 an ounce.
Silver was down $0.42 cents to US$26.88 an ounce.
Oil has lost $0.48 to US$42.34 a barrel.

Source: Finance News Network