Australian shares are expected to open higher this morning after crude oil gained overnight, while a report out of the US showed inflation was unlikely to be a problem.
The local share market closed lower yesterday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index is down 26 points at 4,729. Looking at the futures market the SPI200’s up 28 points.
Checking currencies at 8:40 AM the Aussie Dollar is buying 93.11 US cents, 83.16 Yen, 62.6 Euro cents and 55.37 Pence Sterling.
Coming up in today’s economic news - Westpac and the Melbourne Institute release their Indexes of Economic Activity for September.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics releases its labour price index for September quarter and international merchandise imports for October.
In company news this morning National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) shares closed steady yesterday at $28.50. The country’s third-biggest lender has moved to bolster its investment advisory and private and corporate banking operations in Asia after buying Hong Kong-based Calibre Asset Management. The purchase price is yet to be revealed. The acquisition is the NABs first in Hong Kong since selling its life insurance businesses in the city and in Indonesia to Axa Asia Pacific Holdings in 2006. National Australia Bank’s 2009 net profit was nearly $2.6 billion dollars.
Shares in the Seven Network (ASX:SEV) finished unchanged yesterday at $6.57. Television broadcasters Seven Network and the Ten Network (ASX:TEN) are believed to have secured advertising rate increases for next year with media agency groups. According the Financial Review, Seven, whose prime time audience ratings fell by 1.8% this year, has gained a 2% to 4% increase, while Ten, which increased its audience by 7.8%, is believed to have agreed to rates 5% higher. The Seven Network achieved about a $12.5 million dollar net profit in 2009.
Checking ex-dividends and no companies going today but a few are tomorrow and they are Brickworks with a 26.5 cent fully franked dividend, Felix Resources with a 50 cent fully franked dividend and Incitec Pivot with a 4.6 cent unfranked dividend.
Overseas now and Wall Street finished modestly higher - The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 30 points. The S&P500 Index was steady and the NASDAQ gained 6 points.
European markets were lower. London’s FTSE is down 37 points, Paris fell 34 points and Frankfurt lost 26.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 30 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 61 and the Shanghai Composite added 8 points.
Looking at metals: Gold is steady at US$1,139.20 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver lost 3 cents to US$18.37 and for the March contract, copper is steady at US$3.13.
And the price of oil is up 24 cents to US$79.14 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
