Investors are looking to safe assets like gold and bonds until the US presidential election is decided and the markets have a chance to react.
Markets have been nervous during the race to the White House between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and that's not going to change until results of the vote trickle in on Wednesday AEDT.
Analysts have predicted markets will react more favourably to a Clinton victory than a win by Trump.
On Friday the Australian share market hit a four-month low after the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 1.9 per cent over the week.
In the US the S&P 500 ended lower for a ninth straight day, the longest losing streak for the benchmark index in more than 35 years.
CommSec chief economist Craig James said index futures are pointing down about 30 points, or 0.6 per cent when the Australian share market reopens on Monday following weakness from overseas on Friday.
"It’s a case of following the leader. People are moving outside of more risky assets and going to things like gold and bonds," Mr James said.
Gold continues to be comfortable above US$1,300 an ounce and bond yields continue to fall, he said.
"We’ll probably see more of the same until this (presidential election) result gets out of the road."
Australasian markets could have a chance to react by late trade on Wednesday and then see how overseas markets digest the results.
Mr James said that while financial markets are wary of Donald Trump, the composition of the Congress is all important in determining whether extreme policies will get through and will also have a bearing on market rections.
"I think it will be a real positive if there is a divided congress because that way it’s not open slather," he said.
Locally this week the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release housing finance for September, the National Australia Bank will release its monthly business survey and the Westpac-Melbourne Institute's survey of consumer sentiment is due out.
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