US stocks ended sharply higher on Friday following a stronger-than-expected November jobs report which paves the way for a December rate hike from the Federal Reserve.
That gives a positive lead to local stocks for the new week with our own jobs figures due later today as well.
US economic news
Labor Department figures show 211,000 jobs were added in November, well above expectations of 200,000 and leaving the nation’s unemployment rate unchanged at 5 per cent.
Markets
Wall Street closed higher ahead of the weekend: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 2.1 per cent to 17,848, the S&P 500 added 2.1 per cent to close at 2,092 and the NASDAQ also rose by 2.1 per cent to close at 5,142.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE slid 0.6 per cent, Paris lost 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt also slipped 0.3 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei slipped 2.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.8 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite retreated 1.7 per cent.
The Australian share market closed lower on Friday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 76 points down to finish at 5,152, to be 51 points down on the week. On the futures market the SPI is
31 points up.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying 73.43 US cents, 48.65 Pence Sterling, 90.50 Yen and 67.6 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from ANZ are job advertisements for November.
Company news
Vocus Communication Limited
(ASX:VOC) says it has now received clearance from the New Zealand Commerce Commission for their proposed merger with M2 Group
(ASX:MTU). This follows approval from the ACCC last month. Vocus Communications last traded 0.94 per cent down at $7.41.
Spotless Group Holdings Limited
(ASX:SPO) has responded to an ASX aware query saying they had an internal review on recent business developments and expectations for 2016 performance. That outlook was materially different to higher expectations previously communicated and the company say they informed the market in a timely fashion as soon as the re-forecasting was complete. Shares in Spotless Group last traded 4.63 per cent lower at $1.24, they were trading as high as $2.20 just last Tuesday.
Ex-dividends Two companies are going ex-dividend today: Dicker Data Limited
(ASX:DDR) will pay 3.5 cents fully franked and Ironbark Capital
(ASX:IBC) will pay three quarters of a cent fully franked.
Commodities
Gold has added $22.90 to $1,084 an ounce for the February contract on Comex. Silver has advanced $0.47 to $14.54 for March. Copper has added 2 cents to $2.08 a pound. Oil has shed $1.11 to US$39.97 a barrel for January light crude in New York.
