The Australian share market looks like it may be in for a cautious start this morning after Wall St closed flat overnight.
US stocks closed flat on Tuesday in low-volume trade as investors considered some mixed economic reports.
In economic news out of the US overnight, the S&P/Case Shiller index of house prices in the 20 largest metropolitan areas was unchanged in October after rising for four straight months.
And in another report the conference Board reported a rise in consumer confidence for December to a read of 52.9 from 50.6 the month before.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2 points to 10,545. The S&P500 Index also lost 2 to 1,126 and the NASDAQ closed 3 points lower at 2,288.
European markets were higher. London’s FTSE gained 35, Paris added 13 points and Frankfurt rose 9.
Asian markets were also stronger: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 19 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei is up 4 and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 23 points.
Back to the local market now and Australian stocks ended higher on Tuesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 54 points higher at 4,845. Looking at the futures market the SPI200’s up a point.
Looking at currencies; the Aussie Dollar at 8:45AM is buying 89.46 US cents, 82.37 Yen, 62.35 Euro cents and 56.3 Pence Sterling.
In company news about this morning: Shares in mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) gained 1.06 per cent to $42.92 yesterday. According to Reuters Antamina, a joint venture between BHP, Xstrata, Teck Cominco and Mitsubishi Corp, expects a $1.2 billion expansion to gain shareholder approval in the coming days. The joint venture says the expansion of Antamina, a copper-zinc mine in Peru, would increase production by 38%. Peru’s mining ministry says the mine produced 358,179 tonnes of copper and 382,842 tonnes of zinc last year. BHP’s fiscal 09 profit came to over $7.2 billion.
Shares in apparel retailer Country Road Ltd (ASX:CTY) last traded at $3.24. The company has appointed Sophie Holt to its board, effective from January 1, 2010. The company says Ms Holt, the granddaughter of former Prime Minister Harold Holt, has made a major contribution to the turnaround of the business in recent years and her appointment to the board is reflective of that contribution. Ms Holt’s appointment is unusual as a report in the Sydney Morning Herald shows. The paper reports that a study showed that women directors made up just 8% of the total board members of top 200 retailers. Country Road posted a profit for the 12 months to June 30, 2009.
Taking a look at companies going ex dividend: While there are no companies going ex-dividend today, coming up tomorrow we have Programmed Maintenance and the Spider S&P/ASX200 Fund.
Looking at metals: Gold fell $9.80 to US$1,098.10 an ounce for the February contract on Comex. For the March contract Silver slipped 45 cents to US$17.11 and copper is down 2 cents at US$3.31.
And the price of oil is $0.10 higher at US$78.87 a barrel for February light crude in New York.
