The doom and gloom around world markets look set to continue this week as US equity futures have opened the week in the red.

So far today the ES futures are down -0.5% or a bit over 12 points, to set a negative lead to start the session in Asia.

Of course, markets are really just following on from a weak lead on Friday that saw the SPX shed more than 1% on the back of US President Trump taking on Mexico and looking to impose tariffs unless they start to deal with the immigration issue.

That has seen GOLD rally strongly and the entire safe-haven space for that matter.

The week ahead will be dominated by the ongoing sagas coming out of Washington as well as some key data and central bank announcements. We have the RBA on Tuesday, which is suggesting a rate cut then the ECB later in the week. On Friday we have this month’s US non-farm payrolls.

Asian Market Outlook

There is a host of minor data out in Asia today that will directly impact the AUD/USD but it is really not all that market moving.

The big data release will be the Chinese Private PMI survey, which is known to shake up the Aussie. That is due for release in about an hour and I will take a closer look at that at the time.

Otherwise, all the focus will be on the interest rate decision tomorrow from the RBA.