Following a rebound on Wall Street overnight, the Australian share market looks set for a higher open this morning. The turnaround comes after a horror session on US markets on Tuesday, which saw the Dow lose 470 points on the back of Chinese economic concerns.
US Economic news
The new US private sector jobs figures for the month of August have fallen short of economist expectations. Companies added 190,000 jobs for the month, which fell below the expected 201,000 new positions. This private sector jobs read will serve as a pre-cursor to Friday’s official job figures.
Global markets
Wall Street closed higher yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.8 per cent to close at 16,351, the S&P 500 gained 1.8 per cent also to close at 1,949 and the NASDAQ climbed 2.5 per cent to close at 4,750.
European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE gained 0.4 per cent, Paris was up 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt was up by 0.3 per cent also.
Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 1.2 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.2 per cent.
The Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 5 points higher to finish at 5,101. On the futures market the SPI is up 31 points.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying 70.39 US cents, 46.02 Pence Sterling, 84.70 Yen and 62.72 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is the retail trade data for July, where modest growth of 0.3 per cent has been forecasted. The ABS will also release data on trade exports and imports for July.
Company news Kathmandu Holdings Limited
(ASX:KMD) has announced that New Zealand based Briscoe Group will not be increasing its takeover offer for Kathmandu. The board of Kathmandu recently advised its shareholders to reject the $318 million bid, saying it undervalued the company. Briscoe Group says the offer price is attractive and sees no reason to increase it. Shares in Kathmandu Holdings Limited closed 2.91 per cent lower yesterday at $1.50.
Armour Energy Limited
(ASX:AJQ) says it will become a significant gas and LPG player after entering an agreement with Origin Energy to acquire petroleum resources and infrastructure assets at the Surat Basin in Queensland in a $13 million deal. The company says the acquisition will allow armour energy to become a petroleum producer of up to 10PJs of gas per annum. Shares in Armour Energy closed up 83.82 per cent yesterday at 12.5 cents.
Commodities Gold has lost $6.60 to $US1,133 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver has gained 4 cents to $14.66 for December.
Copper has gained 3 cents to $2.33 a pound.
Oil has gained 64 cents to $US46.05 a barrel for October light crude in New York.
Ex-dividends | Name | Code | Date | Amount(cents) | Franking |
| Adelaide Brighton | ABC | 3/09/15 | 12 | 100 |
| Austock Group Ltd | ACK | 3/09/15 | 1 | 100 |
| Arowana Internat Ltd | AWN | 3/09/15 | 1 | 0 |
| Evolution Mining Ltd | EVN | 3/09/15 | 1 | 0 |
| Fortescue Metals Grp | FMG | 3/09/15 | 2 | 100 |
| Hunter Hall Global | HHV | 3/09/15 | 8 | 0 |
| IPH Limited | IPH | 3/09/15 | 10 | 50 |
| Integrated Research | IRI | 3/09/15 | 4 | 35 |
| Medibank Private Ltd | MPL | 3/09/15 | 5.3 | 100 |
| Prime Media Grp Ltd | PRT | 3/09/15 | 3 | 100 |
| Regis Healthcare Ltd | REG | 3/09/15 | 17.6 | 64.2 |
| Silver Chef Limited | SIV | 3/09/15 | 20 | 100 |
| Steamships Trading | SST | 3/09/15 | 39.54 | 0 |
| Tox Free Solutions | TOX | 3/09/15 | 4.5 | 100 |
| Wilson Grp Ltd | WIG | 3/09/15 | 2.25 | 100 |
| Adacel Technologies | ADA | 4/09/15 | 1.25 | 0 |
| Apn Outdoor Grp | APO | 4/09/15 | 4.5 | 100 |
| Blackmores Limited | BKL | 4/09/15 | 135 | 100 |
| Cardno Limited | CDD | 4/09/15 | 7 | 100 |
| Caltex Australia | CTX | 4/09/15 | 47 | 100 |
| MMAOffShor | MRM | 4/09/15 | 1.5 | 100 |
