The Australian share market has received mixed leads from overseas markets with lower oil, copper and gold prices likely to pressure resource stocks today.
Wall St closed mixed overnight the Dow Jones and S&P500 gained but the Nasdaq closed flat.
A rally in financial stocks and signs of improvement in the retail sector not enough to hold off investors nerves ahead of Friday’s crucial jobs report.
According to CNN Money the US Government is expected to report that employers cut 35,000 from their payrolls following the axing of 11,000 the month before.
CNN Money also reports that December retail sales rose 2.9%.
To the figures, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 33 points to 10,607. The S&P500 Index added 5 at 1,142 and the NASDAQ lost a point at 2,300.
To other markets - European markets were mixed. London’s FTSE fell 3 points and Paris added 7 points, and Frankfurt is dropped 15 points.
Asian markets were weaker: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 147 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei slipped 50 and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 61 points.
Back to the local market and Australian stocks closed lower yesterday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 22 points lower at 4,899 and on the futures market the SPI200’s up 24.
Looking at currencies; the Aussie Dollar at 8:45AM is buying 91.8 US cents, 85.66 Yen, 64.15 Euro cents and 57.64 Pence Sterling.
In company news about this morning: Shares in engineering and construction company UGL Ltd (ASX:UGL) fell 0.74 per cent to $14.70 yesterday. The company has selected China’s Huawei as its sole supplier of technology and equipment. According to the Australian Associated Press the Chinese telecommunications solutions provider is to deliver a solution for RailCorp’s radio communications upgrades to its NSW rail network. UGL earned profit of $142.48 million in the year to June 30, 2009.
Shares in iron ore explorer BCI Iron Ltd (ASX:BCI) gained 2.73 per cent to $1.315 yesterday. Base metals trading house Tennant Metals is to take action against BCI Iron to seek damages in relation to the termination of a contract between the two companies. The contract involved Tennant acting as the agent in the sale of 25% of production from BC Iron’s Nullagine project in Western Australia. Tennant Metals is arguing that the contract was invalidly terminated, while BC Iron says there is a clause in the contract that allowed it to end the deal. BCI Iron posted a loss for financial year 2009.
Looking at companies going ex dividend: Going today we have Abacus Property Group with a 1.5 cent unfranked dividend, Clime Capital with a 1 cent fully franked dividend, and Euroz with a 2 cent fully franked dividend.
To metals: Gold dropped $2.90 to US$1,133.60 an ounce for the February contract on Comex. For the March contract Silver rose 18 cents to US$18.35 and copper is down 7 cents at US$3.43.
And the price of oil is down $0.52 to US$82.66 a barrel for February light crude in New York.
