Following soft leads from Wall Street, the Australian share market looks set to open in negative territory this morning. Investors already seemed to be in holiday mode, with low volumes ahead of the upcoming thanksgiving holiday. Markets will be closed Thursday and most of Friday afternoon.
To US economic news, according to latest figures from the Commerce Department, durable goods orders rose in October, indicating that manufacturing could be firming up. New orders increased by 3 per cent on October, beating economist’s expectations of a 1.8 per cent rise. US new home sales also rebounded in October with sales increasing 10.7 per cent.
Global markets
To the figures: Wall Street closed mostly flat yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.01 per cent to close at 17,813, the S&P 500 lost 0.01 per cent to close at 2,089 and the NASDAQ added 0.3 per cent to close at 5,116.
European markets closed up: London’s FTSE added 1 per cent, Paris added 1.5 per cent and Frankfurt gained 2.15 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also lost 0.4 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.9 per cent.
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 33 points lower to 5,194. On the futures market the SPI is down 9 points.
Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 8.30AM was buying 72.6 US cents, 48 Pence Sterling, 89.08 Yen and 68.36 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is data on Private Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure. The data is broken up into building and structures and equipment. In the June quarter investment fell by 4 per cent driven by weakness in spending on buildings and equipment.
Company news Finbar Group Limited
(ASX:FRI) has advised that the Arbor North Project has reached a stage of practical completion at Rivervale in Perth. The project consists of 154 one and two bedroom residential apartments. Finbar has secured sales of $54.9 million from the $75.6 million project. Shares in Finbar closed flat yesterday at $1.05.
Ex-dividends One company is going ex-dividend today: Aurora Dividend Income
(ASX:AOD) will pay 0.4 cents fully franked.
Commodities and the dollar
Gold has lost $3.00 to $1,070 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver has lost 2 cents to $14.16 for December.
Copper has lost 2 cents to $2.05 a pound. Oil has gained 26 cents to $US43.13 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
