The Australian share market looks set to open higher this morning, followed mixed leads from Wall Street on Friday. The Nasdaq recorded its sixth record close for 2017, while the S&P 500 surged after Facebook, JPMorgan, the Bank of America and Wells Fargo reported positive profit results.
US economic news:The Labor Department says the Producer Price Index (PPI) lifted by 1.6 percent in 2016, which was the biggest 12 month gain since September 2014.
The PPI, which measures price changes before they reach consumers is still at historical lows, which tells us US inflation is in check.
Also out in the US, their Retail Sales for December, which saw a rise of 0.6% from November. For 2016, the yearly figures jumped 3.3%, 1% higher than 2015. .
Aus economic news: Today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics ABS will release its Tourist arrivals/Departures figures for November.
On Tuesday, it will release its Housing Finance figures for November.
On Wednesday, Westpac will report consumer confidence statistics for November and finally on Thursday, the ABS will make their December unemployment/employment data public.
Markets:Wall Street mixed on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.03 per cent to close at 19,886, the S&P 500 added 0.2 per cent to close at 2,275 and the NASDAQ rose 0.5 per cent to close at 5,574.
European markets closed up: London’s FTSE advanced 0.6 per cent, Paris gained 1.2% and Frankfurt added 0.9 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng eased 0.2 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lifted 0.5 per cent.
And back home, the Australian share market closed lower on Friday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 46 points lower to finish at 5,721. On the futures market the SPI is up 18 points.
Company news: Technology platform business, Digimatic Group (ASX: DMC) has entered into a collaboration agreement with a conference promoter.
Digimatic's technology arm, Digmatic Solutions and MP International will create and run a pet expo website and mobile phone application.
The company says the new products will potentially capture a large niche of both consumers and merchants in Singapore.
Shares in Digimatic last traded at 9 cents.
Currencies:
The Australian Dollar at 8.20am was buying $US74.88 cents, 62.46 Pence Sterling, 85.62 Yen and 70.64 Euro cents.
Commodities: Gold has lost $2.50 to trade at US$1,197an ounce for the February contract on Comex.
Silver gain 1 cent to $US16.84 per once for March contract.
Oil lost 51 cents to $US53.32 a barrel for February light crude.
