The Australian share market looks to start the last trading day before the New Year marginally higher following a mildly positive lead from Wall St overnight. Stronger oil and copper may give resource stocks a boost today.
In the US, stocks closed out the session ever so slightly higher as investors considered a stronger dollar and what has been a roller coaster of a year.
According to CNN Money, as of Tuesday’s close the Dow has risen 20% this year, the S&P 500 has advanced close to 25% and the Nasdaq jumped 45%.
In economic news the Chicago Performance of Manufacturing Index rose to 60 in December from 56.1 in November. Economists were expecting a fall to 55.1.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 3 points on Wednesday to 10,549. The S&P500 Index was flat at 1,126 and the NASDAQ closed 3 points higher at 2,291.
European markets were lower. London’s FTSE fell 40, Paris dropped 24 points and Frankfurt declined 54.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 3 points. Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 92 and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 51 points.
Back to the local market now and Australian stocks ended lower on Wednesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 12 points weaker at 4,833. Looking at the futures market the SPI200’s up 22 points.
Looking at currencies; the Aussie Dollar at 9:25AM is buying 89.41 US cents, 82.67 Yen, 62.38 Euro cents and 55.62 Pence Sterling.
In company news about this morning: Shares in global miner Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) gained 0.3 per cent to $74.64 yesterday. A report released by Reuters says Rio mined over 50 million tonnes of iron ore from its Yandicoogina mine in the Pilbara of Western Australia. This is close to a quarter of its total iron ore production for the year. The mine was running at around 40 million tonnes a year until April when demand started to pick up, boosting production. Reuters says Rio expects to produce between 210 and 215 million tonnes in 2009, up from 170 million tonnes in 2008. Rio Tinto posted net profit after tax of $5.3 billion for calendar 2008.
Shares in base and precious metals explorer Perilya Ltd (ASX:PEM) slipped 2.89 per cent to $0.67 yesterday. The company says it is unsure whether it can adequately satisfy all of the hedge effectiveness requirements for its silver and lead hedging contracts. Perilya says there is a divided opinion amongst the major accounting firms as to whether the hedging of different revenue streams derived from the sale of a single concentrate can be considered effective under current accounting standards. Perilya sells its lead concentrate to its customers, from which it earns revenue for lead and silver as well as smaller amounts for gold and copper. The company says it will take a conservative approach until a definitive position is reached. Perilya posted a $75.09 million loss in fiscal 2009.
Taking a look at companies going ex dividend: And among those going today we have Programmed Maintenance with a 3 cent fully franked dividend and the Spider S&P/ASX200 Fund amount to be advised.
Looking at metals: Gold fell $5.60 to US$1,092.50 an ounce for the February contract on Comex. For the March contract Silver slipped 31 cents to US$16.80 and copper is up 3 cents at US$3.35.
And the price of oil is $0.41 higher at US$79.28 a barrel for February light crude in New York.
