The Australian share market should open flat today. Despite a positive lead from Wall Street, ASX futures are down slightly this morning. Investors are still cautious and waiting to see what the Bank of Japan and US Fed will do with their interest rates.
The BOJ should be announcing its monetary policy decision this afternoon. It seems unlikely that the Fed will raise interest rates in September, and the broad consensus is the probability of a rate rise is 20%.
US economic newsThe Commerce Department has released slightly disappointing housing data. Building activity in August declined after two straight months of increases. Last month, housing starts fell more than expected – coming in at an annualized rate of 1.14 million, well below the market expectation of 1.19 million.
Adding to that picture, permits for future construction were also down 0.4 percent last month.
MarketsWall Street finished higher overnight: The Dow Jones was up 0.1% and closed at 18,130, the S&P 500 is steady at 2,140 and the NASDAQ added 0.1 per cent to close at 5,241.
European markets finished mostly higher: London’s FTSE gained 0.3 per cent, Paris lost 0.1 per cent and Frankfurt was up 0.2 per cent.
Asian markets finished weaker: the Nikkei was down 0.2%, while the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were both down 0.1 per cent.
The Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 9 points up to finish at 5,304. On the futures market, the SPI is down 9 points.
CurrenciesThe Australian Dollar at 7:20AM is buying $US75.55 cents, 58.17 Pence, 76.85 Yen and 67.76 Euro cents.
Company newsCharter Hall Group
(ASX:CHC) has partnered with MTAA Super to purchase the Campbelltown Mall in south-western NSW for $197 million. The acquisition of the shopping centre should be complete by October, next month, and will increase the value of Charter Hall’s retail asset portfolio to over $5 billion. Shares in Charter Hall were down 0.19% to close at $5.23
Xped Ltd
(ASX:XPE) has signed a joint venture agreement with a Chinese company called the ‘Complex Semiconductor Co Ltd’. This is part of Xped’s plan to expand in China, and together they will jointly develop a series of sales and manufacturing channels to grow Xped’s ADRC platform – which is a tech solution which can be used to control multiple devices and applicanes around the house. Shares in xPed closed 9.52% lower and closed at 5.7 cents.
Ex-dividendsA number of stocks are going ex-dividend today. They include: Carsales.com.au, Macquarie Atlas Roads, Newcrest Mining, Vita Life Sciences, and Webjet.
CommoditiesGold has gained $0.20 to $US1,318 an ounce.
Silver has gained $0.02 to $19.30.
Copper has gained at 1 cent to $2.17 a pound.
Oil is up 57 cents to $US44.43 a barrel.
