Slippery September: Aus shares to slide at open

Market Reports

by David Chau

The local share market will probably lower again today.  Overnight, Wall Street finished lower and will provide a weak lead. Investors digested lower oil prices, and are looking ahead to the jobs report due out on Friday. Again, investors are being cautious as they await the Fed’s decision on whether to raise interest rates next month. The expectation is, if not next month, then probably by the end of the year.

US economic news

Crude oil inventories rose by 2.3 million barrels last week. This figure was double what economists were expecting, and oil prices fell overnight.

Also, pending home sales (or the number of signed contracts to buy existing homes) were up 1.3% in July. This is the second highest level in over 10 years.

Markets

Wall Street closed lower on Wednesday: The Dow Jones lost 0.3 per cent to close at 18,401, the S&P 500 was down 0.2 per cent to close at 2,171 and the NASDAQ slipped 0.2 per cent to close at 5,213.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE was down 0.6%, Paris lost 0.4% and Frankfurt was down 0.6%.

Asian markets closed mixed: the Nikkei gained almost 1 per cent, the Hang Seng was down 0.2 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite was up 0.4 percent.

The Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 45 points down to finish at 5,433. This morning, on the futures market, the SPI is down 19 points.

Currencies

The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US75.22 cents, 57.29 Pence, 77.78 Yen and 67.44 Euro cents.

Local economic news

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release data on private capital expenditure (June quarter), and retail sales (July).

Company news

The Propertylink Group (ASX:PLG) has exercised an option to acquire a portfolio of nine industrial, commercial and retail property assets worth $142 million. These assets are located in NSW, Victoria, QLD and WA, and were acquired from Denison Funds Management. Shares in Propertylink closed 1.22 per cent lower at 81 cents.

Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX:AGO) has reported a full year loss of $159 million. This is still a lot better than its FY15 result, when they lost $1.4 billion. The company says its sales revenue increased by 9% to $786 million, and had record exports of 14.5 million tonnes. However, its profit was affected by asset and inventory write-downs, and restructuring costs which totaled $101 million. Shares in Atlas Iron closed 10 per cent higher at 1.1 cents.

Commodities

Gold has lost $4.70 to $US1,312 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver has gained $0.05 to $18.72 for September.
Copper is steady at $2.08 a pound for September.
Oil has lost $1.49 to $US44.86 a barrel for October light crude.

Ex-dividends




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