The early gains our market is expected to make this morning on the back of strong offshore leads could quickly dissipate on news that European Union leaders have thrown down the gauntlet to Greece to throw out its anti-austerity political principles.
Greece has three days to enact key demands from the European Union into Greek law, which would mean a humiliating back down from the country's prime minister, to secure a third bailout in five years. Greece needs the bailout to stay in the Eurozone.
The futures market had been pricing in a 0.6% advance for the S&P / ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) this morning, but that quickly fell to a 0.2% gain. I think we will be lucky to open in the black today.
Iron ore miners like Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) and BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) could outperform though as the price of the steel making commodity advanced another 2.3% to $US50.10 a tonne on Friday after surging 9.9% the day before.
The US-listed shares of the two mining giants jumped 1.6% and 2.8%, respectively, on Friday and the good news is that Greece isn't significant to global demand for metals.
But don't expect other resources stocks to be well supported as key commodities like oil, copper and gold fell on Friday.
On the other hand, stocks with large offshore earnings could be in focus with UBS predicting that our dollar will fall to US70 cents by year end on weak commodity prices and rising US interest rates.
That would be good news for medical devices companies like Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) and ResMed Inc. (CHESS) (ASX: RMD), as well as logistics giant Brambles Limited (ASX: BXB) and building materials supplier James Hardie Industries plc (ASX: JHX) – just to name a few.
Share market services company Computershare Limited (ASX: CPU) will also be in the spotlight. It has material US dollar exposure, but it has also announced a deal to buy the share register services business from SIX Securities Services. No terms were announced.
Wireless broadband network company BigAir Group Limited (ASX: BGL) has acquired cloud services and consulting firm Applaud IT.
The volcanic ash cloud that has grounded flights to and from Bali is likely to put the focus on Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) and Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd (ASX: VAH), while The Australian reports that casino operators Echo Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX: EGP) and Crown Resorts Ltd (ASX: CWN) have sweetened their bids for the new Brisbane casino site.
Also making the news are property developers Stockland Corporation Ltd (ASX: SGP) and Land Lease Group (ASX: LLC) as the companies have been shortlisted to design and build the Herston Quarter health precinct in Brisbane.
