Following soft leads from Wall Street, the Australian share market looks set to open in negative territory this morning. A fall in the price of oil overnight resulted in energy shares becoming the biggest drag on the market. Investors also remaining nervous that an interest rate hike may be on the cards in the next few weeks.
Global markets
Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.3 per cent to close at 17,702, the S&P 500 slipped 0.3 per cent to close at 2,075 and the NASDAQ lost 0.3 per cent to close at 5,067.
European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE added 0.4 per cent, Paris gained 0.8 per cent and Frankfurt added 0.7 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.2 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.3 per cent.
The Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 23 points higher to finish at 5,123. On the futures market the SPI is down 17 points.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 8:20AM was buying 70.63 US cents, 46.44 Pence Sterling, 86.77 Yen and 65.78 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Reserve Bank of Australia is credit and debit card lending figures for the month of September. We will also get the October employment read, with economists expecting a rebound for the month after 5000 jobs were lost in September.
Company news Syrah Resources Limited
(ASX:SYR) has announced it has signed an exclusive agreement with Morgan Hairong to license its proprietary spherical graphite coating technology. The company says it represents a major milestone in Syrah’s spherical graphite supply chain development. Shares in Syrah Resources closed flat yesterday at $3.22.
Ex-dividends Three companies are going ex-dividend today: CSR Limited
(ASX:CSR) will pay a dividend of 11.5 cents unfranked, Managed Accounts
(ASX:MGP) will pay a dividend of 0.2 cents unfranked and Soul Pattinson
(ASX:SOL) will pay a 30 cent dividend fully franked.
Commodities
Gold has lost $3.80 to $US1,085 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver has lost 8 cents to $14.28 for December.
Copper has lost 0.3 cents to $2.22 a pound. Oil has retreated $1.26 to $44.18 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
