The Australian share market is set to open lower this morning.
Overnight, Wall Street finished with a mixed performance after the Federal Reserve released its September meeting minutes. The minutes revealed that it was a “close call” on whether to raise interest rates last month. Several of the more hawkish Fed members warned that a rate rise was needed “relatively soon”, and that if the central bank waited too long, the US could enter a recession. From those minutes, it seems likely the US will see an interest rise by the end of this year.
Oil prices fell for the second day this week. OPEC countries ramped up oil production last month to its highest level in 8 years. Despite OPEC recently agreeing to cut production, it seems there will be a larger oil surplus next year.
US economic newsLabour demand fell to an eight-month low in August, despite hitting a record high in the month before that. The US Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey revealed that job openings slipped by 388,000 to a seasonally adjusted 5.4 million.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed on Tuesday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1 per cent to close at 18,144, the S&P 500 was up 0.1 per cent to close at 2,139 and the NASDAQ is down 0.2 per cent to close at 5,239.
European markets finished lower: London’s FTSE was down 0.7%, Paris lost 0.4 per cent and Frankfurt slipped 0.5 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower as well: Nikkei was down 1.1 per cent, the Hang Seng lost 0.6 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite was down 0.2 per cent.
The Australian share market closed flat yesterday: The ASX 200 closed 5 points lower to finish at 5,475. On the futures market the SPI is down 15 points.
CurrenciesThe Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $US75.66 cents, 61.96 Pence, 78.85 Yen and 68.74 Euro cents.
Company newsSigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd
(ASX:SIP) has appointed Iona MacPherson as its new CFO. Ms MacPherson will take up that position from 2 November, and she’ll be replacing Jeff Sells, who is now the company’s General Manager of Strategy and Business Development. Shares in Sigma closed 1.33% lower at $1.49.
Air New Zealand
(ASX:AIZ) reported that it carried 1.5 million passengers in September, which is a 4.7% increase compared to the same period last year. Its revenue passenger kilometers were 6.8% higher on a capacity increase of 8.2%. Recently, the airline sold its remaining shareholding in Virgin Australia for $65.7 million. Shares in Air New Zealand closed 1.2% higher at $1.69.
Ex-dividends
CommoditiesGold has gained 40 cents to $US1,256 an ounce.
Silver has gained 1 cent to $17.52.
Copper is down 1 cent at $2.18 cents a pound.
Oil is down $0.59 to $50.60 USD per barrel.
