The Aussie market is poised to open slightly weaker this morning, after it enjoyed its best week in almost four years last week.

The December SPI futures contract is down 19 points, at 5249.

Overseas stock markets finished last week strongly after hints US interest rates will not rise until next year.

Locally today, Transurban Group will hold its annual general meeting and the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release lending finance figures for August.

Key numbers:

– SPI futures down 19pts at 5249

– AUD at 73.34 US cents, 88.07 Japanese yen, 64.51 Euro cents and 47.81 British pence

– On Wall St, S&P 500 flat, Dow +0.2%, Nasdaq +0.%

– In Europe, Stoxx 50 +0.8%, FTSE +0.7%, CAC +0.5%, DAX +1%

– Spot gold up $US17.52 or 1.5% to $US1156.53/ounce

– Brent crude down 51 US cents or 1% to $US52.54/barrel

– Iron ore adds 0.1% to $US56.01/tonne

What’s on today:

Australia lending finance, credit and debit card lending; US Columbus Day holiday – US stock markets open, bond markets closed; The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries publishes its Monthly Oil Market Report in Vienna; London Metal Exchange Chief Executive Officer Garry Jones and Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing CEO Charles Li are among speakers at the LME Metals Seminar, kicking off LME Week in London.

Stocks in focus:

Goldman Sachs has a “neutral” recommendation on Medibank Private and a target price of $2.65 a share, up 6 per cent. “We expect MPL to remain focused on reducing the growth in claims given the demographic headwinds it faces. We forecast gross margin to improve only modestly in the medium term (13.9 per cent in FY18, up from 13.6 per cent in FY15).”

Macquarie Wealth Management has an “outperform” on Westfield Corp and a price target of $12.13 a share.

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