ASX 200 LIVE: Shares to open with a weak start as investors brace for news about a possible Middle-East peace deal

The Australian sharemarket is set to dip on Monday as investors prepare for fresh evidence that the economy is cooling down and a flurry of central bank speeches for clues on where interest rates are heading next. Futures for the S&P/ASX 200 Index suggest a softer start to the week, pointing down 13 points, or 0.1 per cent, taking a breather from the biggest rally in nearly two months on Friday. The benchmark ended the month with a modest 0.7 per cent gain, but it is still lagging international peers.

Meanwhile, stop-start efforts by Tehran and Washington to extend their ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz will again dominate the market outlook. US President Donald Trump has toughened the terms of a potential framework for a deal to end the war in Iran, and he has sent those proposed changes back to officials in Tehran for consideration. Markets have been buoyed by hopes to an end to the Iran war, which has stretched to three months. The chance of a peace deal pushed the dollar to US72¢ on Friday, bringing gains for the week to 0.8 per cent. “Markets seem to go into the weekend with fairly high hopes that Trump’s ‘final determination’ would potentially be positive,” said NAB head of FX strategy Ray Attrill. “But if we don’t have anything over the rest of the US weekend, then I guess markets will start the week more defensively.” All three indexes on Wall Street hit intraday record highs on Friday on renewed optimism around artificial intelligence and strong earnings growth, as oil prices posted a 19 per cent drop in May.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7 per cent, and both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2 per cent. For the month, the Nasdaq jumped an impressive 8.4 per cent, while the other two benchmarks advanced more than 2.8 per cent.