The Australian share market has received generally positive leads overnight, with Wall Street closing higher overnight, along with precious metals and copper, although the price of crude oil fell again.
US shares gained on the back of strength in financial stocks as the heads of several big banks testified before Congress about the financial crisis. The questioning of bank officials flowed with little confrontation.
The economic news out of the US overnight was mostly positive. The Federal Reserve released its periodic "beige book" report on the economy, which showed that economic conditions generally improved in the Fed's 12 districts, but that credit conditions deteriorated.
Meanwhile, the December Treasury budget showed a deficit of $91.9 billion, versus about $120 billion in November.
To the figures, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 54 points to 10,681. The S&P500 Index rose 9 to 1,146 and the NASDAQ added 26 points at 2,308.
To other markets, European markets were mixed: London’s FTSE down 25 points and Paris were steady, and Frankfurt is up 20 points.
Asian markets were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 578 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 144 points and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 101 points.
Back home and the Australian share market fell for a second day on Wednesday, dragged down by miners after commodity prices fell. The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 31 points lower at 4,868 and on the futures market the SPI200’s up 26.
Looking at currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:50AM is buying 92.45 US cents, 84.52 Yen, 63.71 Euro cents and 56.77 Pence Sterling.
In economic news out today: the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases its labour force data for December, including the unemployment rate.
In company news about this morning: Shares in CSR closed steady yesterday at $1.99. Three big investors in CSR (ASX:CSR) say China's Bright Food Group needs to make a formal offer for the company’s sugar unit, before they’ll take the recent expression of interest seriously.
The comments, reported in today’s Australian Financial Review, are seen as a sign that CSR might struggle to win over the support of shareholders.
Doubts over the approach follow several offers by Chinese companies for Australian organisations in recent months.
CSR is expected to hold a board meeting today to discuss the approach. CSR made a $326 million loss in 2009.
Vodafone Hutchison Australia has been forced to make changes to its phone policies following allegations that some shop staff misled customers about their rights to a replacement phones.
Prior to the merger between Hutchison 3G and Vodafone Australia in June of last year, Hutchison staff were telling customers with faulty phones that the only solution for them was repair.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said the company has acknowledged it was likely to have breached the Trade Practices Act and has made changes to its returns policies on faulty phones.
Hutchison Telecommunications made a loss of $163 million in 2008. Looking at companies going ex dividend: coming up next week we have Mirrabooka Investments and Contango Microcap.
To metals: Gold is up $8.60 to US$1,138 an ounce for the February contract on Comex. For the March contract Silver added 15 cents to US$18.40 and copper is up 5 cents at US$3.40.
And the price of oil is down $1.14 to US$79.65 a barrel for February light crude in New York.
