Australia

Australian shares are set to fall after a strong jobs report triggered a steep sell off on Friday on Wall Street. Investors are worried that continued strength in the US economy will trigger additional actions by the Federal Reserve to head off inflation.

ASX futures were down 61 points or 0.9 per cent to 6703 at 6am on Monday.

The Dow on Friday lost 630 points, or 2.11% to close at 29,296.79. The S&P 500 dropped 104.86 points or 2.8% to 3,639.66 and the Nasdaq declined 3.80%.

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil rose 4.27% to $US98.45 a barrel, off the back of OPEC production cuts announced last week. Gold edged down .44% to US$1,701.80.

In local bond markets, the yield on Australian 1 Year government bonds rose to 3.09% while the 10 Year edged up to 3.91%.

The Australian dollar hit 63.75 US. The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index, which tracks the US dollar against 16 other currencies edged up to 112.75 as the dollar continued to show strength.

Asia

On Friday Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended 1.51% lower at 17740.05, following global markets lower. Japan’s Nikkei Index fell .71% to 27,116.11.

Europe

European stocks had a strong week overall but saw losses on Friday as the FTSE 100 Index fell .09% to 6,991.09. The DAX Index dropped 1.59% and the CAC 40 Index retreated 1.17%.

North America

Despite the sell-off on Thursday and Friday, US markets managed to finish the week in positive territory with the S&P 500 up .83% for the week. The markets focus on the Federal Reserve will shift this week as third quarter results are due out from PepsiCo, JP Morgan and Citigroup. According to FactSet, analysts are forecasting 2.4% growth in third-quarter earnings from the S&P 500. Investors will also get consumer price inflation readings on Thursday.