Outlook: Oil down; Aus shares to open flat

The Australian share market looks set to open flat today, and any leads it can take from US equities market would be negative.

American investors eagerly awaiting the release of the Fed meeting minutes this week. Overnight, Wall Street retreated from its record highs as crude oil prices fell below $44 per barrel, hitting 3 month lows.

Concerns about an oversupply in oil have affected energy shares. Indeed, the energy sector was the worst performer by far, losing more than 2%. To shed some perspective, the sector which finished second-lowest was Telecoms, losing 0.4%.  Furthermore, 7 out of 10 sectors finished in the red.

Markets

Wall Street closed lower on Monday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4 per cent to close at 18,493, the S&P 500 is down 0.3 per cent to close at 2,168 and the NASDAQ is down 0.1 per cent to close at 5,098.

European markets finished mixed: London’s FTSE was down 0.3 percent, Paris was up 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt was up 0.5 per cent.

Asian markets closed mixed as well: Nikkei was flat, the Hang Seng gained 0.1 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite was up 0.1 per cent.

The Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The ASX 200 closed 35 points higher to finish at 5,534. On the futures market the SPI is up 1 point.

Currencies

The Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $US74.69 cents, 56.87 Pence, 79.06 Yen and 67.95 Euro cents.

Company news

Automotive Holdings Group (ASX:AHG) has purchased the Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles dealership in Laverton, Victoria. The Group says this dealership will be rebranded as ‘Daimler Trucks Melbourne’ and relocated over the next 12 months to a new facility on Boundary Road, Melbourne.

Shares in AHG closed 1.16% higher at $4.35.

Coal of Africa Ltd (ASX:CZA), has been granted a 5-year extension of its environmental regulatory clearance in relation to its Makhado coal project in Limpopo, South Africa.

Shares in Coal of Africa closed 7.69% higher at 7 cents.

Ex-dividends

Two companies are going ex-dividend today.

Countplus will pay a dividend of 2 cents, fully franked.
Lantern Hotel will pay 2 cents, unfranked.

Commodities

Gold has lost $8.60 to $US1,323 an ounce for the August contract on Comex.
Silver has lost $0.08 to $19.61 for September.
Copper is down 1 cent at $2.23 cents a pound for September.
Oil is down $1.14 to US$43.05 per barrel for September light crude in New York.