ASX to drop as island countries beg for remote workers

Would you like this to be your office? Image: Getty

ASX: Australian shares are expected to start Friday lower, after two consecutive days of falls as the boost from the Pfizer vaccine begins to disappear.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index closed lower by 31.5 points, or 0.49 per cent, to 6418.2 on Thursday.

The All Ordinaries closed down 31.7 points, or 0.48 per cent, to 6619.4.

Wall Street: The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones fell as the US faced eight straight days of more than 100,000 coronavirus infections.

Unofficially, the Dow finished 1.20 per cent lower at 29,043.41 points, while the S&P 500 finished 1.02 per cent at 3,536.23 points. The Nasdaq was 0.66 per cent lower at 11,708.94 points.

Power bills: Aussie households should see lower power bills as energy production costs have nearly halved in the last year.

"COVID-19 continues to impact households and businesses, so any reduction in energy prices across eastern Australia is welcome relief," Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said.

Economy: Australia may not be clear of its Covid-19 recession, but there are six signs that things are looking up, writes Stephen Koukoulas.

Retiree reminder: Around 5 million Australians are eligible for a new $500 cash boost, but there are warnings that thousands of people don’t know that they can claim the cash. Here’s what we need to know.

Dear Aussie Advisor: If you’re unemployed, would you choose to renovate your house? What if you had a reasonable amount in super and other assets? That’s the question put to our Aussie Advisor.

Exotic locales: And are you getting pretty tired of living and working at home? These eight exotic destinations are calling for remote workers.

With AAP.

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