The Australian sharemarket is expected to open in negative territory, with ASX 200 futures pointing to a drop of 0.4% to 8,189 points.
Over on Wall Street, as an exhaustingly eventful year splutters to a close, all major indices are lower.
Despite recent turbulence, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are on track to close 2024 with overall gains, with the Nasdaq up more than 32% year-to-date.
End-of-year losses
For today though, volumes were thin and investors were in retreat, with the Dow Jones dropping 418 points (just under 1%), while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq recorded losses of just over 1% and 1.19%, respectively.
The decline was led by another sell-off in Big Tech, with some further big falls in Amazon, Alphabet and Tesla shares.
Boeing also slipped more than 2% following a fatal Jeju Air crash involving a 737-800, prompting safety inspections of the aircraft model in South Korea.
US Treasury yields saw a fair bit of movement, with the 10-year yield falling to 4.5%, its largest single-day drop since late November.
Analysts attribute this to profit-taking after last week’s bond market rally and a shift by investors seeking safer assets amid falling equity prices.
Despite Monday’s drop, the 10-year yield remains up by 40 basis points since early December.
Bitcoin’s end-of-year rally continued to fade, trading at US$94,000 by Monday’s close after reaching US$106,000 earlier in the month.
Natural gas surges
Meanwhile, natural gas prices surged 20% to nearly two-year highs, driven by forecasts of a cold snap likely to increase demand while tightening supply.
The low trading volumes and year-end portfolio repositioning added to the market’s volatility, as investors locked in gains and adjusted for tax purposes.
Looking ahead, US markets will close on January 9 for a National Day of Mourning honouring former President Jimmy Carter.
Market snapshot
- ASX 200 futures: -0.4% to 8,189 points.
- Australian dollar: +0.1% to 62.18 US cents.
- S&P 500: -1% to 5,906 points.
- Nasdaq: -1.2% to 19,486 points.
- FTSE: -0.4% to 8,121 points.
- EuroStoxx: -0.5% to 504 points.
- Spot gold: -0.5% to $US2,607.45/ounce.
- Iron ore +2.0% to $US100.85 a tonne.
- Brent crude: +0.3% to $US74.39/barrel.
- Bitcoin: -1.9% to $US92,667.
Source: ABC