Mixed corporate news and economic reports in the US has provided no direction for local stocks ahead of Tuesday's opening.
What you need2know:
• SPI futures down 2 points to 5527
• AUD at 94.08 US cents, 95.86 Japanese yen, 70.05 Euro cents and 55.41 British pence
• On Wall St, S&P 500 flat, Dow +0.1%, Nasdaq -0.1%
• In Europe, Euro Stoxx 50 -0.1%, FTSE -0.1%, CAC +0.3%, DAX -0.5%
• Spot gold down 0.1% to $US1305.28 an ounce
• Brent oil down 0.8 per cent to $US107.51 per barrel
What's on today
Australia: June new home sales;
US: Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) begins two-day meeting on interest rates, US July consumer confidence, US May Case Shiller home prices;
UK: Bank of England deputy governor speaks.
Stocks to watch
Alacer Gold is set to report earnings.
Queensland-based BPS Technology, the global payments provider that owns Bartercard and customer payment app Bucqi, is set to list on the stock exchange in a deal that values the company at $58.5 million.
Deutsche Bank has a ‘hold’ recommendation on Sirius Resources and a $3.85 target price.
Deutsche Bank has a ‘buy’ recommendation on Sonic Healthcare and a $20 target price. Deutsche said an “improving US outlook for the remainder of 2014 is encouraging”.
Currencies
The US dollar traded mostly flat against a basket of major currencies, halting last week’s advance but still hovering near six-month highs as traders awaited a glut of economic data and policy releases.
The greenback inched lower against the euro but still traded near eight-month highs against the shared currency ahead of Wednesday’s release of US second-quarter gross domestic product growth and a Federal Reserve policy announcement. Traders also await Friday’s report on US nonfarm payrolls growth for July.
Commodities
Hedge funds and money managers trimmed net long or 'buy' positions in copper markets from more-than-eight-year highs, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.
Oil prices dipped as signs of excess supplies of North Sea and West African crude and weak demand in Europe and Asia offset fears of escalating tensions in Ukraine and the Middle East.
United States
US stocks ended nearly flat on Monday as the latest deal news offset losses following soft data on the housing market and services sector.
An index of pending home sales unexpectedly fell 1.1 per cent in June, according to the National Association of Realtors. The report followed a drop of 8.1 per cent in June new home sales, the biggest slump in almost a year.
Activity in the US services sector stayed at its highest level in 4-1/2 years in July, though readings for new business and employment growth weakened, according to financial data firm Markit’s preliminary data.
Dollar Tree agreed to buy rival discount chain Family Dollar Stores for $US8.5 billion to fend off growing competition from Wal-Mart Stores and fellow discounter Dollar General.
Zillow said it would buy smaller rival Trulia for $US3.5 billion in stock, combining the two most-popular US real estate website operators at a time when more prospective homebuyers are screening properties online.
Europe
European equities have barely budged from their levels at the end of June, inching back from multi-year highs on doubts over the pace of economic recovery in the euro zone and the impact of conflicts in Ukraine and across the Middle East.
Lloyds Banking Group could face further punishment after agreeing to pay fines totalling $US370 million for its part in a global interest rate rigging scandal and for attempting to manipulate fees for a government lending scheme to help banks.
What happened yesterday
Shares eased on Monday after company reporting season got off to a disappointing start, with fund managers and equity strategists eager for evidence that the sharemarket’s recent six-year highs are justified.
The S&P/ASX 200 slid 6.1 points, or 0.11pc, to 5577.4.
