IG Markets Morning Prices

Good morning,

The US market retreated modestly during Friday's session as the much anticipated non-farm payrolls came in weaker than expected. It showed total job losses of 125,000, roughly 10,000 worse than what the market had been expecting. Surprisingly, the unemployment declined for the first time in six months to 9.5% but private sector job creation remained weak, only gaining 83,000.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was the worst performer, down 0.5% while the tech heavy NASDAQ and broad based S&P 500 gave up 0.4% and 0.3% respectively.

Locally, the ASX 200 is called to open 0.2% lower at 4230 following the weaker US leads. We could see some selling pressure among the industrial, financial and consumer discretionary sectors today after they were the worst performers in Friday's US session. They fell 1.2%, 1.2% and 1.1% respectively on concerns over the recovery and that big banks won't meet their second quarter guidance.

Elsewhere, there could be some weakness among energy names after Crude Oil futures fell 0.9% since 4.30pm on Friday. On the upside, the material sector could see some buying despite the US sector finishing lower. Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton added 1% and 1.7% while BHP Billiton's ADR is calling the locally listed stock 0.4% firmer.

In summary, it looks like a modestly lower open for the local market. From there, traders will focus on Asian markets for further leads, as well as ANZ job ads data due out at 11.30am. With the US observing July 4 holidays this evening, we're likely to see relatively benign trade as there will be no fresh leads.