Yet another higher open expected for ASX200

Market Reports

by David Chau

The Australian share market is expected to open higher when trading commences at the ASX this morning.

On Tuesday, US markets finished higher, with the Nasdaq (in particular) recording a record close.

The price of crude oil has once again proved to be very volatile, as it fell overnight and led to Energy shares being the worst performer on Wall Street.

Although the Dow Jones and S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs, those gains were lost by the end of the trading day. As for why, it may be explained by the mixed economic data which was released overnight.

US economic news

Productivity, which is the average hourly output for each worker, fell for a third-consecutive quarter. It fell by 0.5 percent in the second-quarter of this year, which is a sharper fall than what economists have been predicting. This result suggests wage growth could be slow, and corporate profits may continue to fall.

On the other hand, wholesale inventories for June rose 0.3 percent, which was higher than expected – due to gains in farming product stocks and other non-durable goods.

Markets

Wall Street finished slightly higher on Tuesday: The Dow Jones closed steady at 18,533, the S&P 500 was also steady at 2,182 and the NASDAQ was up 0.2 per cent to close at 5,225.

European markets closed higher as well: London’s FTSE was up 0.6 per cent, Paris gained 1.2 per cent and Frankfurt hit a record high for 2016, by adding 2.5 per cent.

Asian markets finished mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.1 percent, and the Shanghai Composite added 0.7 per cent.

The Australian share market finished stronger yesterday: The ASX 200 closed 15 points up to finish at 5,553. On the futures market the SPI is up 10 points.

Currencies

The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US76.7 cents, 59.01 Pence, 78.13 Yen and 69.03 Euro cents.

Australian economic news

Something to look out for today is the Westpac-Melbourne Institute’s consumer sentiment survey for July. Last month, this index fell by 3 points, so let’s see if there’s been an improvement later today.

Company news

IOOF Holdings Ltd (ASX:IFL) has announced that its statutory net profit increased by 42% to $196.8 million, over the previous year. In its FY2016 results, the company also said it had continuing positive net flows totaling $1.8 billion, and a “record dividend” of 54.5 cents per share, for the full year.

Shares in IOOF last traded 7.6% lower at $8.60.

Carsales.com Ltd (ASX:CAR) has also announced its financial results for FY2016. The company says its reported net profit after tax went up by 6% to $109.3 million over the previous year. Also, its operating revenue increased by 10%, and the company declared a fully franked dividend of 19.5 cents, which is 10% higher than last year’s dividend.

Shares in carsales.com last traded 1.37% higher at $12.54.

Ex-dividends

Tabcorp Holdings Ltd will pay a dividend of 12 cents, fully franked.

Commodities

Gold has gained $5.40 to $US1,347 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver is up $0.05 to $19.85 for September.
Copper is down $0.01 to $2.15 a pound for September.
Oil has lost $0.25 to $US42.77 a barrel for September light crude in New York.

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