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Wall Street lower on health care, materials

Thursday, 25 Aug 2016 05:42:58 | Thuy Ong

Wall Street has been in a holding pattern as investors eye a key speech from the US Fed due on Friday. (Reuters)

The health care and materials sectors have dragged Wall Street lower as investors eye a key US Federal Reserve meeting due on Friday.

Markets at 7:10am (AEST)

  • ASX SPI futures -0.1 per cent to 5,537
  • AUD: 76.1 US cents, 57.5 British pence, 76.4 Japanese yen, 67.5 euro cents, $NZ1.041
  • US: Dow Jones -0.4 per cent to 18,483, S&P 500 -0.5 per cent to 2,176, Nasdaq -0.8 per cent to 5,218.
  • Europe: FTSE 100 -0.5 per cent to 6,836, DAX +0.3 per cent to 10,623, CAC 40 +0.3 per cent to 4,435
  • Commodities: iron ore -0.2 per cent to $US61.50 a tonne, gold -1 per cent to $US1,325 an ounce, West Texas Crude -2.6 per cent to $US46.29 a barrel

Recent hawkish comments from some US Fed members has raised expectations US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen may signal a hike in September at the Jackson Hole meeting in Wyoming, according to Reuters.

"Whatever Yellen says Friday, we should remember that Jackson Hole is not designed to be about a talk-fest about near-term policy matters," said Ray Attrill, global co-head of FX strategy at NAB in a statement.

"The bigger discussion in the context of 'designing resilient monetary policy frameworks for the future' should be about what already highly stretched monetary policy can do in the event of a new downturn."

On Wall Street, pharmaceuticals giant Mylan dropped 5.4 per cent to $US43.15 on political pressure, dragging health care stocks lower.

Mylan has been called by Members of Congress for explanation over a 400 per cent price hike for its EpiPen allergy shots.

"The market over the past several weeks has been in a holding pattern, really not doing much of anything and the reason for that is everyone is waiting to hear what Yellen is going to say," Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at First Standard Financial in New York told Reuters.

Overnight, European shares rose helped by the financial sector, but the mining sector finished lower after British miner Glencore posted a disappointing update.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 0.4 per cent higher, a third consecutive session of gains.

Locally, shares are set to open slightly lower, as investors eye a raft of earnings results due today, including from Woolworths and David Jones.

Today's agenda

  • Australia: Amcor FY, Flight Centre FY, Iluka interim result, S32 FY, Woolworths FY (all around 8:15am AEST)
  • US durable goods orders July, 11:00pm (AEST)

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