The Australian stock market will open lower this morning, following a weak lead from Wall Street.
Deustch Bank and the US Justice Department are currently negotiating a settlement in regards to the US$14 billion fine that was issued to the Bank. However, investors remain anxious as nothing has been finalised yet, and this has affected the performance of shares in the financial sector.
US economic newsUS equities were also affected by the release of some not-so-impressive economic data.
Markit's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index came in at 51.5 in September, which is a three-month low. Output and new orders expanded at a slower pace, and there’s been a loss in growth momentum since July.
Construction spending fell by 0.7 percent in August. This was below expectations as analysts were expecting a 0.2 percent increase.
MarketsWall Street finished lower, with the Dow Jones slipping 0.3 per cent to 18,254. The S&P 500 was down 0.3 per cent to close at 2,161 and the NASDAQ lost 0.2 per cent to close at 5,301.
European markets finished higher: London’s FTSE gained 1.2 per cent, Paris added 0.1 per cent and Frankfurt was closed for public holiday.
Asian markets closed higher as well: the Nikkei gained 0.9 per cent, the Hang Seng added 1.2 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite was closed.
The Australian share market finished higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index was up 43 points to close at 5,479. But this morning, on the futures market, the SPI is down 22 points.
CurrenciesThe Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $US76.75 cents, 59.75 Pence, 77.98 Yen and 68.46 Euro cents.
Local economic newsThe Reserve Bank of Australia is meeting today, and it will be the first meeting chaired by the new governor, Philip Lowe. It’s expected that the RBA will keep the official cash rate steady at 1.5%.
Company newsSt Barbara Ltd
(ASX:SBM) will buy back US$55 million worth of Senior Secured Notes in an effort to further reduce debt, via a notice of redemption administered by the Trustee. The mining company says, by 31 October, it will have repurchased about US$177 million in Notes. Shares in St Barbara closed 1.88% lower at $3.13.
Henderson Group plc
(ASX:HGG) and the Janus Capital Group will merge to become Janus Henderson Global Investors plc. The new combined group will be a global asset manager with more than US$320 billion in assets under management, and have a combined market cap of US$6 billion. The merger is expected to close in the second quarter of next year, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. Shares in Henderson Group closed 4.19% higher at $3.98.
Ex-dividendsA number of stocks are going ex-dividend today, including Donaco International, MYOB, and Nick Scali.
CommoditiesGold has lost $2.30 cents to $US1,315 an ounce.
Silver has lost $0.34 to $18.88.
Copper is down 2 cents to $2.19 a pound.
Oil is up $0.41 to $US48.65 a barrel.
