The Australian market looks set to open lower despite a mixed performance on Wall Street where the S&P 500 ended at its best level since July but the Nasdaq fell.

The SPI is trading down 16 points, at 5361.

Locally, in economic news, the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases April's housing finance data detailing how many home loans were taken out in the month.

In equities news, Vicinity Centres has an investor day.

Meanwhile, retail sector chief executives - including The Good Guys' Michael Ford and Myer's Frances Martin - are slated to speak at an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Sydney.

Key Numbers

• The SPI is trading down 16 points, at 5361.
• AUD at 74.51 US cents, 80.06 Japanese yen, 65.68 Euro cents and 51.29 British pence
• On Wall St, Dow +0.1%, S&P 500 +0.1%, Nasdaq -0.1%
• In Europe, Stoxx 50 +1.3%, FTSE +0.2%, CAC 1.2%, DAX 1.7%
• In London, BHP -0.7%, Rio -0.1%
• Spot gold flat at $US1245.50 ounce at 11.40am New York time
• Brent crude +1.6% to $US51.35 barrel at 2.10pm New York time
• Iron ore +2.8% to $US52.54 tonne

What’s on today

Local data: Housing finance approvals; NZ manufacturing sales

NAB economists on today’s local data: “Recall that in March while there was a degree of resilience shown across a number of housing indicators (e.g. auction clearance rates and prices), total finance approvals were almost unchanged, declining 0.2% m/m in March with owner-occupied loan approvals down 0.9% m/m, but investor housing approvals up 1.5% m/m, following a strong increase in February. For investor approvals, while the trend remains soft, a degree of resilience persisted to March despite a sequence of announcements from financial institutions to tighten lending standards to some market segments.

We also know that since March, house prices have continued to rise in April and May, May’s gain likely aided by the further cut in the RBA cash rate, hints that demand has held up. NAB forecasts that the headline number of owner-occupied approvals rose by 2.6% in April and we will also be particularly interested in investment lending approvals values that rose in March and April.”

Overseas data: US MBA mortgage applications (weekly), Brazil IPCA inflation (May), Chile inflation (May), China imports, exports, trade balance (May), Japan current account (April), Japan final reading of GDP (1Q), Turkey industrial production (April), UK industrial production (April), South Africa GDP (1Q).

Overseas earnings: Dollarama, Lululemon Athletica, Dominion Diamond, Brown-Forman.

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