Australian share market is expected to start the day with very little momentum.
The ASX 200 closed at its second-highest level on Thursday (6,718 points) and is approaching the record high it reached on November 1, 2007 (6,851.5 points).
At 7:50am (AEST), ASX futures were trading flat.
The Australian dollar, meanwhile, was slightly weaker, falling to 70.2 US cents, 55.8 British pence and 62.2 Euro cents.
Commonwealth Bank is not expecting the Australian dollar to fall by very much in the short term, despite the fact that the Reserve Bank cut interest rates to a record low 1 per cent on Tuesday.
"This low in [interest] rates is being countered by high prices for Australia's commodity exports," CBA currency strategist Kim Mundy said.
"The high prices are boosting Australia's terms of trade and narrowing Australia's current account deficit, already at a small 0.6 per cent of GDP.
"Added to this support for the Australian dollar, is the expectations that the FOMC [US Federal Open Markets Committee] is about to embark on a rate cut cycle, which will depreciate the US dollar."
'Japanification' of European rates
It was a quiet night on foreign markets as Wall Street was closed for Independence Day.
On Wednesday (local time), US markets had climbed to fresh records as traders bet the Federal Reserve will cut America's interest rates at the end of July.
European markets traded in a narrow range as its major indices London's FTSE (-0.1pc), Germany's DAX (+0.1pc) and Paris' CAC (flat) finished largely unchanged.
"So while the picture from the EU [European Union] equity market has remained upbeat, the mood in core EU bond yields is still reflecting major concerns over growth and inflation outlook," NAB senior foreign exchange strategist Rodrigo Catril said.
"10 year [German] Bunds closed at a new record low level of 0.4020 per cent and now below the ECB [European Central Bank] negative deposit rate.
"Market pricing is very much consistent with a 'Japanification' of Europe — near-permanent negative or zero interest rates amid high savings rates and low inflation."
Meanwhile, Australia's key export iron ore has dropped 2.2 per cent to $US122.03 a tonne.
Spot gold is down 0.2 per cent to $US1,415.19 an ounce.
Brent crude futures, the international oil benchmark, lost 1 per cent to $US63.18 a barrel amid concerns about slowing global demand for oil.
