The Australian market looks set to open lower after Wall Street fell, weighed down by tepid data on private sector US jobs and a retreat in biotech shares.

The SPI is down 15 points, at 5234

In local economic news, the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases international trade in goods and services and its retail trade data, both for March.

In equities news, National Australia Bank is slated to release half-year results, while Rio Tinto, Caltex Australia, Scentre Group and Genworth Mortgage Insurance hold their annual general meetings.

Key Numbers:

• SPI futures down 15 points at 5234
• AUD at 74.56 US cents, 79.67 Japanese yen, 64.85 Euro cents and 51.41 British pence
• On Wall St, Dow -0.6%, S&P 500 -0.6%, Nasdaq -0.8%
• In Europe, Stoxx 50 -1.2%, FTSE -1.2%, CAC -1.1%, DAX -1%
• In London, BHP -5.8%, Rio -2.4%
• Spot gold -1% to $US1273.75 ounce at 2.06pm New York time
• Brent crude -1.6% to $US44.27 barrel at 1.41pm New York time
• Iron ore -5.2% to $US60.09 tonne

What’s on today:

Local data: Trade and retail sales, HIA new home sales

Local earnings: National Australia Bank, News Corp

Central bank watch: St Louis Fed chief James Bullard in California; Fed presidents James Bullard, Robert Kaplan, Dennis Lockhart and John Williams a panel discussion on “International Monetary Policy and Reform in Practice” in Stanford

Overseas data: China Caixin services/composite PMIs; ECB’s monthly economic bulletin; UK services PMI April; US jobless claims weekly, US energy association annual meeting in Washington

Overseas earnings: Kellogg, Activision Blizzard, Occidental Petroleum, Merck & Co, Discovery Communications, Chesapeake Energy, Square Inc, Alibaba Group Holding, Repsol, BT Group, Finmeccanica, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena

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