Australia

The local share market is set to open broadly flat, pulled in opposite directions by falls on Wall Street and gains in base metals prices.
At 830am (AEST), the Australian share price futures index was down four points, or 0.07 per cent, at 6043 points. The dollar was buying 75.79 US cents.
In the US, the Dow Jones index closed 0.7 per cent lower after US President Donald Trump raised doubts about US-China trade talks and the North Korean summit.
Trump said the China trade talks "were a start" and that there was no deal with China on ZTE Corp.
The Australian sharemarket on Tuesday posted its largest daily fall in seven weeks due to weakness for Telstra, the major banks and mining giants. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 was down 42.6 points, or 0.7 per cent, at 6041.9 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was 40.3 points, or 0.65 per cent, at 6149.9 points.
Out today: Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe speaks at Australia-China Relations Institute.
The Australian Agricultural Company releases full-year results, and Woodside Petroleum holds an investor briefing.

Asia

Asian shares skidded on Tuesday as a strong dollar sapped demand for emerging market assets while surging oil prices stoked concerns about a flare-up in inflation and faster US interest rate increases.
Europe was set for a muted start, with futures for London’s FTSE index and the Eurostoxx 50 up 0.1 per cent each but E-Minis for the S&P 500 were flat.
Japan’s Nikkei ended 0.2 per cent lower and Australian shares fell 0.7 per cent. Chinese stocks were in the red too with the blue-chip CSI300 off 0.5 per cent.
Liquidity was relatively thin due to holidays in South Korea and Hong Kong.
Even though most major Asian markets edged lower, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan managed to eke out a small 0.17 per cent gain.

Europe

The UK’s top share index hit new heights on Tuesday as shares in financials and miners rose further, fuelling talk of it hitting the 8000-point benchmark.
The blue chip FTSE 100 index closed up 0.2 per cent and hit a record 7903.50 points during the session before reducing its gains to 7877.45 points.
Other European shares were up as Italian government bond yields slipped from multi-month highs after six days of steep selling tied to the growing likelihood of a government comprised of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the far-right League.
Analysts said the price falls of recent days might render the debt attractive again for some.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.29 per cent, Germany's DAX 30 was up 0.7 per cent, and France’s CAC40 was up 0.05 per cent.

North America

US stocks closed lower on Tuesday as investors weighed comments on trade talks between the US and China and as energy and industrial shares fell.
US President Donald Trump said he was not pleased with the recent US-China trade talks and also raised doubts about the upcoming North Korea summit.
Trump also said the China trade talks “were a start” and that there was no deal with China on ZTE Corp. Trump has adopted a more conciliatory stance in the China talks as North Korea, whose chief ally is Beijing, has called into question a summit planned for next month in Singapore.
The president’s comments come after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said over the weekend that the two countries had put the prospect of a trade war “on hold” and agreed to hold more talks to boost US exports to China.
The industrial sector dipped 1 per cent, a day after posting its best one-day percentage gain in nearly two months on the trade truce, while the energy index was down 1.3 per cent.

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Lex Hall is a Morningstar content editor, based in Sydney.

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