US stocks ended higher for the week providing a positive outlook for the Australian share market. Wall St closed up on Friday to make it a third straight week of gains.
Investors there are shrugging off soft economic data in the belief that although the Federal Reserve rate hike has been delayed.. it is still on the cards.
US Economic news
Industrial production fell for a second straight month in September, down 0.2 per cent on renewed weakness in oil and gas drilling. Consumer sentiment showed a strong rebound rising for the first time in four months. Meanwhile a report from the Labor Department showed 5.37 million jobs are waiting to be filled in the US, second only to July’s all-time high of 5.67 million.
Markets
Wall Street closed up ahead of the weekend: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4 per cent to close at 17,216, the S&P 500 added 0.5 per cent to close at 2,033 and the NASDAQ advanced 0.3 per cent to close at 4,887.
European markets closed up: London’s FTSE added 0.6 per cent, Paris also gained 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt added 0.4 per cent.
Asian markets were also higher: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose by 0.8 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite advanced 1.6 per cent.
The Australian share market closed higher on Friday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 38 points up to finish at 5,268 to be 30 points down over the week. On the futures market the SPI is pointing 22 points higher.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 8.20AM was buying 72.61 US cents, 47.04 Pence Sterling, 86.72 Yen and 63.96 Euro cents.
Company news M2 Group Limited
(ASX:MTU) has called for no changes to the NBN roll out technology so internet service providers can have some stability for their future infrastructure plans. The plea came following a pledge from Labor that it would ramp up the NBN rollout with fibre optic cabling if it wins the next election. Shares in M2 Group last traded up 0.85 per cent at $9.50.
And Xero Limited
(ASX:XRO) customers will soon be able to receive faster approvals for business loans. Xero has linked its technology platform with National Australia Bank so it can tap into balance sheet data and file online enquiries straight from their Xero accounting package. Shares in Xero last traded down 0.27 per cent at $14.78.
Ex-dividends Three companies are going ex-dividend today: Credit Corp Group
(ASX:CCP) will pay 22 cents fully franked. WAM Active Limited
(ASX:WAA) will pay 2.5 cents fully franked and WAM Capital Limited
(ASX:WAM) will pay 7 cents with full franking.
Commodities
Gold has slipped $10.20 to $US1,177 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver has shed 13 cents to $16.03 for December. Copper has shed 2 cents to $2.40 a pound. Oil has added $0.85 to US$47.72 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
