Thursday outlook: Aus shares may edge higher

Market Reports

by David Chau

Despite a mixed performance from Wall Street overnight, ASX futures are indicating that the Australian share market might push higher this morning.

The Dow Jones was the only New York index which gained and it was propped up by shares in aviation company, Boeing. Boeing’s performance helped to offset sharp losses from Apple (after the tech company reported quarterly sales results which fell below expectations).

Also, the Federal Reserve is meeting next week, and will pay close attention to the latest economic data. But investors aren’t expecting an interest rate rise then. Instead, a December rate increase is more likely, after the dust from the US Presidential election settles.

US economic news

The service sector purchasing managers index rose to 54.8 in October, beating the September figure of 52.3. This is the strongest business level of optimism for American service providers since August 2015.

In addition, new home sales were up 3.1 percent in September (compared to the previous month).  It is also 29.8% higher, compared to the September 2015 figure.

Markets

Wall Street closed mostly lower overnight: The Dow Jones gained 0.2 per cent to close at 18,199, the S&P 500 was down 0.2 per cent to close at 2,139 and the NASDAQ slipped 0.6% to 5,250.

European markets finished lower: London’s FTSE was down 0.85%, Paris lost 0.1 per cent and Frankfurt dipped 0.4 per cent.

Asian markets closed mostly lower: the Nikkei added 0.2 per cent, the Hang Seng lost 1 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite was down 0.5%.

The Australian share market finished weaker yesterday: The ASX 200 closed 83 points down to finish at 5,360. On the futures market the SPI is up 8 points.

Currencies

The Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $US76.47 cents, 62.48 Pence, 79.92 Yen and 70.14 Euro cents.

Local economic news

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the latest quarterly import and export price data later today.

Through the year to the June quarter, import prices fell 2.8%, while export prices have fallen 8.7%.

Company news

Data#3 Ltd (ASX:DTL), a business technology company, has won a tender, and secured a contract with the Queensland Department of Education. Data#3 says this is contract is for several years – to refresh up to 12,000 Hewlett Packard devices, and many of them will be deployed to schools across the State in the coming months. Shares in Data#3 closed 1.6% higher at $1.59.

APN Property Group Ltd (ASX:APD) has sold its Hungry Jack’s, Shell and Subway assets in South Nowra, NSW, for $11.32 million. APN says the sale price reflects a premium of 36.4% to the original purchase price of $8.3 million. The company also says settlement is conditional on local council approval, within 6 months, to the subdivision of the site. Shares in APN are down 1.16% at 42 cents.

Ex-dividends

Five companies are going ex-dividend: AMP Capital China, Bank of Queensland, CBL, Clover Corporation, and Joyce Corporation.

Commodities

Gold has gained $0.20 to $US1,267 an ounce.
Silver has gained 1 cent to $17.64.
Copper is flat at $2.14 a pound.
Oil is down $0.03 to US$49.15 per barrel.

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