Shares likely to defy the gloom from overseas

The Wealth Within chief analyst, Dale Gillham, said the latest developments in Europe would have an impact on the market, particularly in terms of trading volatility, but events from closer to home would have more bearing.

"I think this week we are going to still be a little bit choppy, but I don't expect our market to be really down," Mr Gillham said yesterday. "I actually expect our market to probably generally trade up from now through to Christmas and into January.

"We are much more affected by China and things going on in the Asian markets."

Stocks closed lower in New York on Friday night, despite figures showing the US jobless rate fell to 9 per cent last month, compared with 9.1 per cent the previous month.

The non-farm payrolls report also showed the economy added 80,000 jobs in the month. Although the result was below market expectations, there were significant upward revisions to previous months.

"The October labour market report provides further evidence that recession risks that were gaining prominence in mid-summer have receded and that growth seems to have returned to a trend-like pace," JP Morgan economists said in a research note.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.51 per cent, the S&P 500 fell 0.63 per cent and the Nasdaq declined 0.44 per cent.

This week market players were expected to focus on Chinese economic data, including figures on growth and inflation on Wednesday.

"The data out of China this week is something that will give us [a] heads-up of what the next 12 months is going to be like," Mr Gillham said.

On the local data front, the October labour force report is due out on Thursday. The median forecast among economists was for the nation to have added 10,000 jobs last month and an unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent, which is unchanged from the September result.