Urban sprawl pushes US home sales to near 13-year high: Aus shares set to open lower

Based on the SPI, the ASX is poised to start the week on a negative note following mixed leads from international markets on Friday. The US Commerce Department has announced that sales of new single-family homes in the US soared to a near 13-year high in June. The meteoric rise in home sales comes on the back of low interest rates and a new migration trend sparked by covid-19. The emergence of home offices and schooling has fuelled demand for more spacious homes outside of urban centres. Meanwhile, in Australia Victoria has suffered its deadliest day since the pandemic began recording 10 deaths over a 24 hour period – 7 linked to aged care homes. On a brighter note, BHP, Woodside, BlueScope Steel, BP Australia, Orica and many other mining and industrial giants have pledged to purge their operations and supply chains of greenhouse gas emissions by signing on to the Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative. This comes in response to mounting pressure from shareholders and global efforts to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050.

Local economic news

Today on the agenda Commsec is releasing its State of the States report and the Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor of Financial Markets, Christopher Kent will make a speech at the Kanga News webinar. On Tuesday, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia will publish weekly card spending data, the ABS will release weekly payroll and wages figures, and the ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence figures will be released. On Wednesday, the ABS will issue the consumer price index for the June quarter. On Thursday the ABS will publish building approvals for the month of June and international trade price indexes for the June quarter. On Friday the ABS will publish producer prices for the June quarter and the RBA will issue the private sector credit report for the month of June.

Markets

Wall Street closed lower on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.7 per cent, the S&P 500 fell 0.6 per cent and the NASDAQ closed 0.9 per cent lower.

European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE lost 1.4 per cent, Paris dropped 1.5 per cent and Frankfurt closed over 2 per cent lower.

Asian markets closed lower, Nikkei was closed, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 2.2 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite dropped 3.9 per cent.

Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to 0.5 per cent fall.

On Friday, the Australian share market lost 71 points to close at 6024.

Company news

Digital Wine Ventures (ASX:DW8) generated total revenue of $271,000 for the quarter ending 30 June 2020 – an increase of around 50 per cent on the $182,000 revenue in the previous quarterly report. The company processed a total of over 7,750 orders in the June quarter, up 93 per cent on the previous quarter. The total number of cases processed also grew over the quarter, rising 98 per cent and the total number of cases shipped in the quarter was up 78 per cent. Shares in Digital Wine Ventures (ASX:DW8) closed flat at 4 cents on Friday.

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 6:50 AM was buying 71.03 US cents, 55.57 Pence Sterling, 75.32 Yen and 60.95 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron Ore has lost 0.7 per cent to US$109.39.
Iron Ore futures suggest a 0.2 per cent fall
Gold has gained $7.80 to US$1925 an ounce.
Silver was down $0.14 cents to US$22.85 an ounce.
Oil has added $0.22 to US$41.29 a barrel.

Source: Finance News Network