Soft open for this week’s market

THE Australian share market is likely to open softer today with international weakness after US and European markets closed lower.

AMP Capital’s chief economist Shane Oliver suspects local markets will be open between 10 to 15 points lower in line with share futures, which are pointing to a 14 point fall.

“It looks like a softish start at the open but not overly bad,” Dr Oliver said yesterday.

The US market was dragged down by bad news regarding Boeing and an ongoing issue regarding the 737 Max, but the fall didn’t have much to do with Australia, he said.

Dr Oliver says it will be a quiet week in terms of local news but there will be an RBA speech on Wednesday that will be examined for hints on monetary policy. Investors will be watching for Australia data for skilled vacancies on Wednesday and for continuing signs improvement on Thursday from CBA’s business conditions PMIs for October.

The main focus globally will be the ongoing saga of Brexit to see whether the Europeans will extend the date and how the UK parliamentary vote goes on Boris Johnson’s deal with the EU.

“I think a lot of investors are turned off to some degree because every time you look at it there is a new twist,” he said, adding it was unlikely to have much of an impact here.

“The other thing that might impact markets is any news on ongoing negotiations between the US and China on trade,” Dr Oliver said.

The benchmark S&P/ ASX200 index finished at 6602 or 0.52 per cent behind on Friday but was still 42.9 points, or 0.65 per cent higher than it started the week.

The Australian dollar rose about one per cent during the week.