Australian shares are expected to fall today, weighed down by weakness in resources firms following a pullback in oil and metals prices, while a weak performance on Wall Street, due to concern over consumer spending, might also affect investor sentiment here.
The local share market closed lower yesterday with the S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 9 points at 4,748. Looking at the futures market the SPI200’s down 33 points.
Checking currencies at 8:45 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 92.34 US cents, 83.45 Yen, 62.22 Euro cents and 55.69 Pence Sterling. In economic news, The Australian Bureau of Statistics is due to release its manufacturing production data for September.
In company news, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) shares closed higher yesterday, adding 1.81% to $69.84. Rio Tinto and Chile's state-owned copper mining company have entered into an alliance to jointly pursue `next generation' copper mining and processing technology development. Rio Tinto said in a statement released last night that it had teamed up with CODELCO to deliver a safer, more energy efficient and lower cost open cut and deep underground mines. Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese said the alliance, plus Rio Tinto's Mine of the Future program, would equip the companies to meet an increasing demand for copper. Rio Tinto’s 2008 was $3.676 billion.
Woolworths (ASX:WOW) shares closed lower yesterday, slipping 0.5% to $28. There are concerns about Woolworths latest marketing campaign, which pits its Home Brand private label against some of the most popular food brands. Woollies has installed marketing material at its stores which compares the price of its Home Brand range to products produced by Kraft, Unilever, Nestle and Goodman Fielder among a number of others. Food suppliers reportedly feel that their own brands have been undermined and have raised their concerns to the Australia Food and Grocery Council. Woolworths’ net profits have been gradually increasing over the past four years.
Checking ex-dividends and those companies going today include, Bank of Queensland with a 26 cent fully franked dividend. Biota with an 11 cent fully franked dividend and National Australia Bank with a 73 cent fully franked dividend.
Overseas now and Wall Street lost ground overnight and put an end to a six day rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 94 points. The S&P500 Index lost 11 points and the NASDAQ dropped 18 points.
European markets were mixed. London’s FTSE rose 10 points, Paris down 6 points and Frankfurt is dropped 4.
Asian markets were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 230. Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 67 while the Shanghai Composite is down 2 points.
Looking at metals: Gold is $8 lower at US$1106.50 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver lost 28 cents to US$17.27 and for the March contract, copper is down 2 cents to US$2.97.
And the price of oil is down $2.34 to US$76.94 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
