The Australian share market is tipped to open weaker after concerns about the latest jobs report in the US, which is out tomorrow dragged Wall Street lower as did disappointing sales figures from major retailers.
Yesterday our local market finished the trading day stronger. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 62 points to 4,326 and on the futures market the SPI200’s is down 17 points.
Checking currencies at 8:35AM the Aussie Dollar lost a little ground overnight and is buying 84 US cents, 80.17 Yen, 58.51 Euro cents and 50.05 Pence Stirling.
In economic news out today: the Reserve Bank's latest quarterly statement on Monetary Policy and the Australian Industry Group and the Housing Industry Association releases the Australian Performance of Construction Index for July.
In company news: Shares in Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) closed stronger yesterday added 2.59% to $44.35. The former chief executive of Brambles, David Turner has been announced as the replacement for John Schubert, as chairman of Commonwealth Bank next year. It comes after Schubert missed out on the top board job at BHP Billiton this week and yesterday announced he would stand down. CBA’s profits have been growing year on year over the past four years.
News Corp (ASX:NWS) shares gained yesterday, adding 3.05% to $14.86. Chairman Rupert Murdoch has declared that News Corp is planning to charge for all of its news websites, which include the Australian and the Wall Street Journal. The news came after News Corp posted a $4 billion annual loss yesterday due largely to write downs and the downturn in advertising revenue. Looking at the past five years of results, the standout performance for News Corp was in 2008.
Checking ex-dividends and going today are Ironbark Capital with a 1.2 cent fully franked dividend and WAM Capital with a 4 cent fully franked dividend.
To the international scoreboard: As mentioned US stocks fell overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 25 points. The S&P500 Index fell 6 and the NASDAQ lost 20 points.
European markets were higher: London’s FTSE rose 43 points, Paris added 19 points and Frankfurt is up 17 points.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 404 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 136 points but the Shanghai Composite lost 72 points.
Looking at Metals: Gold lost ground, down US$3.40 to US$962.90 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. For the September contract Silver lost 12 cents to US$14.65 and copper fell 6 cents at US$2.75.
And finally, oil fell 3 cents overnight to US$71.94 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
