No rush expected when Aussie market opens

THE fallout on Wall Street from allegations that several Russians meddled in the 2016 US election is pointing to a flat start to the new trading week in Australia.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up just 0.08 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.04 per cent amid reports that a grand jury indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities, accused of interfering in an effort to support President Donald Trump.

Combined with some falls in commodity prices, AMP Capital’s chief economist Shane Oliver is predicting little movement on the Australian market today.

“My suspicion is we will probably open the market flat to down slightly, maybe five or 10 points,” he said yesterday.

The benchmark S&P/ ASX200 index ended Friday down 0.08 per cent at 5904.0 points. The index was up 1.1 per cent over the week.

Dr Oliver said major market action would start tomorrow after the Reserve Bank releases the minutes of its recent monetary policy meeting.

It’s tipped to repeat the message that, with wages likely to grow only gradually, there’s no urgency to raise interest rates. Dr Oliver believes the highlight of the week will be the release of wage price index for the December quarter by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.