The Australian share market is likely to open higher after US shares gained on Friday ahead of a raft of company earnings out this week.
The Aussie market closed slightly lower on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 16 points at 4,753 and the SPI200 is up 34 points.
Checking currencies at 8:30 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 90.48 cents, 81.19 Yen, 61.42 Euro cents and 57.05 Pence Sterling.
In economic news: The Australian Bureau of Statistics lending finance data for August is due out.
The National Australia Bank monthly business survey for September is published tomorrow.
The Westpac-Melbourne Institute survey of consumer sentiment for October is out Wednesday, along with Australian Bureau of Statistics building activity data and construction activity data for the June quarter.
To what’s making company news this morning: Lihir Gold (ASX:LGL) closed lower on Friday, slipping 1.26% to $3.13. The Australian gold miner is predicting the price of gold might reach US$1,500 an ounce as demand increases from China and central banks. Chief Executive Officer Arthur Hood told ABC Television over the weekend that Lihir is long on gold and that US$1,500 was perfectly achievable. Lihir Gold’s 2008 profit was US$109 million.
Telstra (ASX:TLS) shares closed lower on Friday, dropping 2.17% to $3.16.Telstra's opposition to the federal government's proposed changes to telecoms legislation has fuelled uncertainty over the timing of the new laws. Telstra says it opposes government plans to split the company’s copper- wire network from the business of selling services to consumers. But analysts at Citigroup believe the Telco should co-operate on the sale of its fixed-line assets and avoid the potential “dire consequences” of fighting the government. Telstra’s 2009 net profit was just under $4.1 billion.
To ex-dividends: among those companies going today. Auckland Airport with a 3.74 cent unfranked dividend and Nufarm with a 15 cent unfranked dividend.
To international markets: Wall Street closing stronger higher on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 78 points. The S&P500 Index rose 6 points and the NASDAQ added 15 points.
European markets were mixed. London’s FTSE is up 7 points, Paris down 7 points and Frankfurt lost 5 points.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 7. Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 184 points and China’s SSE Composite is up 132.
Looking at metals: the price of Gold is down $7.70 to US$1048.60 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver lost 13 cents to US$17.69 and copper dropped 6 cents to US$2.84.
And the price of oil is 8 cents higher at US$71.77 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
