Returning from the Australia Day public holiday, Aussie stocks look like they may open steady this morning following flat lead from Wall St overnight.
US stocks closed marginally lower overnight, better than expected earnings results from technology giant Apple and a strong read on consumer confidence overshadowed by concern for the economic recovery as investors turned cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy announcement.
The central bank’s two day policy meeting began on Tuesday amid questions over whether Chairman Ben Bernanke will see another term, central bankers are expected to keep rates steady at historic lows near zero and indicate that they intend to keep them there for some time.
The Conference Board released its Consumer Confidence index showing a rise to 55.9 in January from a read of 53.6 in December.
And the S&P/Case-Shiller 20 city home price index fell 0.2% in November, down 5.3% from a year ago.
Checking the figures, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3 points to 10,194. The S&P500 Index lost 5 to 1,092 and the NASDAQ is down 7 points at 2,204.
To other international markets, Europe was higher. London’s FTSE added 17 points Paris is up 25, and Frankfurt gained 38 points.
Asian markets fell yesterday with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 489 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei declined 187 and China’s Shanghai Composite is down 75 points.
On the local share market shares fell on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 33 points lower at 4,718 and on the futures market the SPI200’s down 33.
On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:35AM was buying 89.86 US cents, 80.58 Yen, 63.84 Euro cents and 55.67 Pence Sterling.
In economic news out today: the ABS is to releases the Consumer Price index for the December quarter, and the Westpac/Melbourne Institute indices of economic activity for November are due out as well.
In company news about this morning: Shares in weapons maker Metal Storm Ltd (ASX:MST) closed steady at just under 2 cents on Monday. The company has signed an equity subscription agreement for $700,000 with a private investor and existing shareholder. The defence technology company says although it has signed an equity line of credit with Global Emerging Markets this additional cash investment is important to allow it to fund further development work. Metal Storm has already received $300,000 and will receive another $400,000 one week after the company holds its meeting for shareholders to approve the transaction. Metal Storm posted a loss for the 2008 calendar year.
Shares in base metals miner Terramin Australia Ltd (ASX:TZN) rose 1.21% to $0.83 on Monday. The company says it expects to post a loss of $9 million for the year to December 31, 2009. The result however is an improvement on the $19.4 million loss recorded for 2008. Terramin says its expects the result to improve significantly in 2010 due to increased concentrate production and a substantial increase in the realised zinc price, estimated to be US$2,300 per tonne in the June half of 2010, compared to US$1,568 per tonne realised in the second half of 2009. Terramin Australia did not declare a dividend for the 2008 year.
Taking a look at ex-dividends: While there are no companies going ex-dividend today, Djerriwarrh Investments is going ex-dividend on Friday.
To commodities: Gold is up $3.20 to US$1,100 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. For the March contract silver lost 31 cents to US$16.84 and copper is down 6 cents at US$3.34.
The price of oil dropped $0.73 to US$74.53 a barrel for March light crude in New York.
