Following weak leads, the Australian share market looks set to open lower this morning. Declines in healthcare and tech stocks left US markets ending the day mostly down on Thursday. Apple stocks continued to take a beating, falling more than 2 per cent to a two year low. Investors will be keeping an eye out for US retail sales data, due out today, looking for any positive growth signals in the US economy.
US economic news
Jobless claims for the week ending May 7th rose by 20,000 to 294,000. It is the third straight week of increases and was above market expectations of 270,000. Import prices rose 0.3 per cent for April, missing market expectations of a 0.5 per cent gain. Due out today are US Retail sales.
Markets
Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1 per cent to close at 17,721 the S&P 500 lost 0.02 per cent to close at 2,064 and the NASDAQ fell 0.5 per cent to close at 4,737.
European markets closed down: London’s FTSE was down nearly 1 per cent, Paris lost 0.5 per cent and Frankfurt fell 1.1 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.7 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite closed flat.
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 13 points down to finish at 5,359. On the futures market the SPI is 11 points down.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US0.7322 cents, 50.68 Pence Sterling, 79.85 Yen and 64.39 Euro cents.
Company News
Prima BioMed Limited (ASX:PRR) has announced U.S-based Sydys Corporation will license its CVac immune-oncology program and oversee its future development. Prima will receive a 9.9 per cent equity stake in Sydys as consideration for the assets being transferred. If CVac is successfully commercialised, Prima could receive over $400 million in milestone payments and royalties. Shares in Prima BioMed Limited closed 2.33 per cent lower yesterday at $0.042.
AHALife Holdings Limited (ASX:AHL) has indicated it is on track to deliver another strong quarter after a two fold increase in booked sales was recorded during the lead up to this year’s Mothers Day. Users on the digital marketplace hit 790,000 while app purchases are showing conversion rates 4 times higher than the website. Management have forecasted the company will begin to record positive cash flow in November and December of this year. Shares in AHALife Holdings closed 8.93 per cent up yesterday at $0.305.
Ex-dividends
2 companies are going ex-dividend today. Managed Accounts Holdings Limited will pay 0.2 cents unfranked and United Overseas Australia Limited will pay 2.5 cents, also unfranked.
Commodities
Gold is down $10.80 to $US1,265 an ounce for the June contract on Comex.
Silver is down $0.32 to $17.00 for July.
Copper has lost $0.03 to $2.08 a pound for July.
Oil has gained $0.43 to $US47.19 a barrel for June light crude in New York.
