What you need2know:

• SPI futures down 19 pts at 5519.

• AUD at 90.13 US cents, 96.62 Japanese yen, 69.46 Euro cents and 55.39 British pence.

• On Wall St, S&P 500 -0.6%, Dow -0.4%, Nasdaq -0.5%

• In Europe, Euro Stoxx 50 -0.1%, FTSE +0.1%, CAC +0.02%, DAX -0.4%

• Spot gold down 0.9% to $US1229.70 an ounce

• Iron ore adds 0.1% to $US82.00 per metric tonne.

• Brent oil down 1% to $US97.11 per barrel on Friday in New York

What’s on today

Australia: August new motor vehicle sales, US August industrial production.

Stocks to watch

CLSA has a “buy” rating on National Australia Bank though it has pared its target price to $39.50 a share from $41.

Deutsche Bank hasa “buy” rating for gaming company Aristocrat Leisure and a 12-month price expectation of $7.20 a share. “Our rating is based on strong forecast earnings per share growth (3 year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36 per cent), continuing positive momentum in key markets, and a strategic acquisition in VGT."

The following stocks will trade ex dividend today: GWA Group (final), Gazal Corp (final), Leighton Holdings (interim), Patties Foods (final), Royalco Resources (final), SkyCity Entertainment (final), Servcorp (final), Slater & Gorcon (final).

Currencies

The dollar index posted its ninth consecutive week of gains on Friday and the US currency rose to six-year highs against the yen on speculation that the Federal Reserve may strike a more hawkish tone when it meets.

The Federal Reserve will drop its promise to keep rates near zero for a “considerable time” after it ends its bond-buying program, paving the way for a first Fed rate hike in June 2015, Michael Feroli, JP Morgan economist, said in a note to investors.

Banks caught up in the British investigation into alleged manipulation of global currency markets are pushing for a coordinated settlement that would reduce their exposure to potential reputational damage, banking and legal sources told Reuters.

Commodities

Copper prices posted their biggest weekly drop in nearly two months on Friday.

Gold slumped to an eight-month low ahead of the weekend, dropping 1 per cent as a lack of physical and investment demand and widespread commodities losses weighed on bullion. Gold’s losses also pressured silver and platinum group metals, with platinum hitting a 2014 low.

Crude oil prices fell on Friday on pressure from weak demand, ample supplies and a strong US dollar. Brent’s premium over US crude narrowed to $US4.84. During the day, the arb touched as low as $US4.15, the narrowest intraday arbitrage since April 14.

In a commentary, Citi wrote that: “We believe that metallurgical coal prices have bottomed and are likely to rebound over the coming months. This improvement is expected to be driven by improved demand from China, as well as the impact of increasing supply curtailments."

United States

US stocks fell on Friday as energy shares extended their recent slide, while rising bond yields drove down high-dividend paying shares. For the week, the Dow was down 0.9 per cent, the S&P 500 was down 1.1 per cent and the Nasdaq was down 0.3 per cent.

The Commerce Department said retail sales increased 0.6 per cent last month after an upwardly revised 0.3 per cent gain in July. In a sign of underlying strength, so-called core sales increased 0.4 per cent in August. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index rose to 84.6 in early September, the highest reading since July 2013, from 82.5 in August

Europe

European equities finished slightly lower on Friday, with investors refraining from making strong bets on stocks before Scotland's referendum and the Fed meeting.

The ICM survey for the Guardian on Friday put supporters of the union on 51 per cent against 49 per cent for those in favour of independence, excluding people who said they did not know how they would vote. A YouGov poll for The Times and Sun showed Scottish support for the union at 52 per cent.

Germany's DAX underperformed the market after the United States and the European Union tightened sanctions on Russia over its intervention in Ukraine. Germany imports a significant amount of gas from Russia and sold it about 36 billion euros  of goods last year, almost a third of the EU's total. Some 6200 German firms are in Russia with 20 billion euros of investment.

What happened on Friday

The Australian sharemarket fell in concert with the local currency and the iron ore price to post their biggest weekly drop in six weeks.

On Friday, the S&P/ASX 200 Index shed 15 points, or 0.3pc, to 5531.1.