The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is currently in the red despite a positive start in the first hour or so.
While the ASX share market is made up of individual businesses, collectively it can have positive or negative movements as it's influenced by the different news of the day, week or even month.
No one can know what the ASX share market is going to do next. Sometimes there may be a positive news story internationally (or locally). Sometimes ASX shares can be influenced by what the next day of trading looks like in the US, or by the performance of international markets overnight.
US futures positive
The ASX share market may have been green earlier in the day as US futures pointed to a positive start to the week.
US shares have certainly suffered heavily in recent weeks. A gain on the first day of trading on Monday would be a bit of lost ground regained.
Currently, the pre-market for the US is showing a possible rise of at least 0.6% when the markets reopen. But that could change. It has already changed for the ASX 200, possible due to news that came out of Beijing.
Chinese COVID-19 setback
As reported by various media, including Bloomberg, the Asian superpower has just reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases in its current outbreak in Beijing. This, according to the news outlet, has increased concerns that the capital of China may see a broad lockdown as authorities try to stop COVID-19 spreading.
Shanghai, another huge Chinese city, has gone through a long lockdown to try to get on top of the spread there. China has been aiming for zero cases, which has become more difficult with how infectious the Omicron variant is. The lockdowns are also impacting the Chinese economy.
With how much Australia is connected to China economically, it may not be a surprise that a knock to China could hurt sentiment about the ASX share market, in the short-term at least.
What next for the ASX share market?
The Australian federal election is finally out of the way after a long build up.
Unexpected news can happen any time of course, but investors may be looking to the size of the next interest rate increases from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and US Federal Reserve as the next major influence on the share market.
Time will tell what happens next.
