The Australian share market is expected to open lower after weak economic data sparked a selling spree on Wall Street.
The local market rallied yesterday with the S&P/ASX 200 Index added 53 points at 4,846 and the SPI200 is down 17 points.
Checking currencies at 8:00 AM the Aussie Dollar was buying 92.43 US cents, 83.85 Yen, 61.88 Euro cents and 56.46 Pence Sterling.
On the economic news front: The Australian Bureau of Statistics new motor vehicle sales data for September and the Westpac-MI indexes of economic activity for August are both being released today.
To what’s ahead in company news today, Australian Pharmaceutical Industries posts its annual results. BHP Billiton issues its first-quarter production report.
To what’s making company news this morning:
Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) shares closed slightly higher yesterday, inching up 0.25% to $4.03. Fortescue Metals Group’s technical woes at its mines in Western Australia's Pilbara region appear to have been ironed out. The company says production rates are rising, driven by processing improvements and contributions from its second mine in the region. The company's CEO Andrew Forrest said he accepted Fortescue has had its fair share of skeptics but that’s being dispelled as it delivers better production. Fortescue Metals Group posted a profit of $508 million in 2009 after being in the red the four years before.
BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) shares up 2.12% to $39.91. The mining giant has declared force majeure on some supply contracts after the closure of a copper rich shaft at Australia’s Olympic Dam. Force majeure is a legal clause allowing a company to miss deliveries because of circumstances beyond its control. BHP is still investigating damage caused by a mechanical failure to the hoist system at the mine’s Clark shaft two weeks ago. BHP says it’s told affected customers of the disruption to shipments. BHP Billiton’s net profit in 2009 was about a third of its result the year before when it made over US$15 billion.
To the ex-dividend scoreboard: Just the one company going today and that’s Iron Bark Capital with a 1.3 cent fully franked dividend. And going tomorrow are Bentley Capital, Redlex Holdings and Trust Company.
To international markets: Wall Street lost ground overnight. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 51 points. The S&P500 Index slipped 7 points and the NASDAQ dropped 13 points.
European markets were also weaker. London’s FTSE is down 38 points, Paris dropped 21 points and Frankfurt fell 41 points.
Asian markets were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 185. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 100 points and China’s SSE Composite added 46.
Looking at metals: the price of Gold added 50 cents to US$1058.60 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver lost 7 cents to US$17.56 and copper fell 3 cents to US$2.93.
And the price of oil is down 52 cents to US$79.09 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
