On Friday the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) edged lower to finish the day at 5,862.8 points.
Will the market be able to bounce back on Monday? Here are five things to watch:
ASX futures pointing
The Australian share market is expected to climb higher this morning. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 0.35% or 20 points higher. This follows a reasonably positive finish to the week on Wall Street which saw the Dow Jones rise 0.25%, the S&P 500 climb 0.1%, and the Nasdaq drop 0.25%.
Royal Commission final report.
After the market close on Monday the Royal Commission final report will be released. I suspect that Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ), Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX: WBC), and the rest of the big four may trade a touch lower today as nervous investors close positions just in case the report is worse than expected.
Oil prices higher.
Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) and Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL) shares could be on the rise on Monday following favourable moves in the oil prices. Oil traded notably higher on Friday after U.S. sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned oil producer raised the risk of tighter supplies. In addition to this, reports of a considerable monthly decline in OPEC production helped support prices. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price rose 2.7% to US$55.26 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price climbed 3.1% to US$62.75 a barrel.
Gold price drops back.
Gold miners including Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) and St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM) could give back some of last week's strong gains after the gold price dropped on Friday. The precious metal hit a nine-month high on Thursday but has now pulled back 0.7% to US$1,317.3 an ounce following strong jobs data in the United States.
Australian dollar falls.
The strong U.S. non-farm payrolls report strengthened the U.S. dollar on Friday, leading to the Australian dollar dropping lower. The local currency closed the week with a 0.3% decline on Friday to 72.5 U.S. cents.
