Following positive leads the ASX looks set to open higher this morning. Wall Street hit another fresh round of highs on Friday, with the Dow Jones continuing its climb towards an unprecedented 20,000 points. However US market momentum may be challenged this week following the Fed’s meeting on Wednesday, where many economists are tipping the central bank will lift interest rates.
US economic news Consumer sentiment jumped significantly in December according to data released by the University of Michigan. The index came in at 98 for December, well above last month’s 93.8 and beating market expectations of a modest lift to 94.5. In other news, wholesale inventories dropped by 0.4 percent in October.
MarketsWall Street closed up on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 0.7 per cent to close at 19,757, the S&P 500 gained 0.6 per cent to close at 2,260 and the NASDAQ rose 0.5 per cent to close at 5,445.
European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE climbed 0.3 per cent, Paris increased 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt rose 0.2 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 1.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.4 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lifted 0.5 per cent.
The Australian share market closed higher on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 17 points to finish at 5,561. On the futures market the SPI is 23 points up.
CurrenciesThe Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US74.60 cents, 59.45 Pence Sterling, 86.03 Yen and 70.83 Euro cents.
Local economic newsLooking ahead due out this week is the NAB Business Confidence index, Westpac Consumer Confidence Index, Unemployment Rate data and the Westpac Leading Index.
Company newscarsales.com Limited
(ASX:CAR) has announced it expects to incur a one off non-cash impairment charge of approximately $7 million for the year ended 31 December 2016. The charge is a write-down to market value of its 15.6 percent stake in iCar Asia. The news comes in the wake of the departure of two non-executive directors from the board of iCar Asia and a change in accounting treatment. Shares in carsales.com Limited closed 0.58 percent lower on Friday at $10.29.
Cover-More Group Limited
(ASX:CVO) has announced it has finalised an underwriting agreement with Berkshire Hathaway Speciality Insurance. The new agreement enables Cover-More to terminate the current underwriting agreement with Munich Re’s Great Lakes Australia. Shares in Cover-More Group Limited closed 0.38 percent higher on Friday at $1.32.
Ex-dividendsOnly 1 company is going ex-dividend today: OFX Group Limited
(ASX:OFX) will pay 2.8 cents fully franked.
Commodities Gold has dropped $11.00 at $US1,161 an ounce for the February contract on Comex.
Silver has fallen $0.18 to $16.91 for March.
Copper is up 3 cents to $2.66 a pound for March.
Oil has added $0.64 to $US51.48 a barrel for January light crude in New York.
