Local shares are poised to open little changed with a weak lead from Wall Street on the Fed's continuing intent to lift US interest rates this calendar year while the Aussie dollar slipped and iron ore jumped to nearly $US60 per ton.
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What you need2know
SPI futures down 9pts to 5673
AUD at 78.26 US cents, 95.10 Japanese yen, 71.13 Euro cents and 50.57 British pence
On Wall St, S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow -0.3%, Nasdaq flat
In Europe, Stoxx 50 -0.3%, FTSE +0.3%, CAC 40 flat, Dax -0.4%
Spot gold up $US1.35 or 0.1% to $US1206.21 an ounce
Brent crude down $US1.17 or 1.8% to $US65.37 a barrel
Iron ore surges 3.5% to $US59.96 per ton
Markets will be closed on Monday in Hong Kong, the UK and the US.
What's on today
Reef Casino Trust AGM, OZ Minerals AGM
Stocks in focus
RBC Capital Markets values BHP Billiton at $25 a share (£12 a share) and maintains an "underperform" rating on the stock.
Worley Parsons is a "sell" at UBS with a price target at $8.40 a share after an investor day.
Deutsche Bank rate Telstra a "hold" with a price target of $5.67 a share
Currencies
The greenback turned higher on Friday, spurred off early losses after a US inflation report that indicated underlying pressures are building bolstered the case for the Fed to raise interest rates later this year.
Commodities
Iron ore capped a second weekly decline on concern that rising output from the world's largest producers will exceed demand from China and widen a global surplus. Ore with 62 per cent content delivered to Qingdao dropped 2.2 per cent last week to $US59.96 a dry metric ton, according to Metal Bulletin Ltd. While the price jumped 3.5 per cent on Friday, it remains 69 per cent below a record $US191.70 in 2011.
Drillers cut the number of US oil rigs in operation by just one this week, the strongest sign yet that a nearly six-month slump in activity was ending, data from oil services firm Baker Hughes showed.
ANZ's senior commodity strategist Daniel Hynes says a seasonally strong period for stainless steel demand is beginning, but there is a risk that Chinese producers will cut back on production.
United States
US stocks ended weaker on Friday after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen indicated that the central bank was poised to raise interest rates this year, in line with Wall Street's expectations.
Both the Dow and the S&P hit new records last week but Friday's dip left the Dow in the red. For the week, the Dow ended 0.2% lower and the S&P rose 0.20%. The Nasdaq added 0.8% for the week
Shares of Microsoft lost 1.10 per cent after CNBC reported the company held significant talks to buy cloud software heavyweight Salesforce.com but failed to agree on a price. Salesforce rose 2.88 per cent.
Boeing shares fell 1.72 per cent to $US144.81 after the Wall Street Journal reported that Bombardier was considering a third model of its CSeries jetliner.
Europe
European shares hovered near three-week highs on Friday as exporters got a boost from a weaker euro, although luxury goods stocks underperformed after Richemont warned that trading remained tough in major Asian markets.
Richemont fell 1%, after reporting weak sales and warning that trading remained tough in Hong Kong and Macau. Richemont's decline dragged down the shares in sector peers including Swatch and Kering.
Among standout gainers, mobile network operator Vodafone rose 4.6% on upgrades from Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, with both citing comments this week from Liberty Global chairman John Malone that Vodafone would be a "great fit".
Athens' main ATG equity index fell 0.7%, with the head of the International Monetary Fund warning that a potential deal to resolve the country's debt crisis still required much work.
What happened on Friday
Banks were once again one of the main drags on the S&P/ASX 200 Index which managed a mere 2.4 point gain on Friday.
