Australian stocks are set for a weak opening with worse-than-expected US employment data and reaction to Apple’s unveiling of the new tablet computer the ipad - causing significant falls on Wall Street.
On the US jobs front, the Labor Department reported that claims for unemployment benefits dropped 8000 to 470,000 last week, less than economists had expected, after rising for three weeks in a row.
The Commerce Department said durable goods orders rose 0.3% last month, well under economists expectations for a 2% rise.
Checking the figures, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 116 points to 10,120. The S&P500 Index lost 13 points to 1,085 and the NASDAQ is 42 points lower at 2,179. To other international markets, Europe closed lower. London’s FTSE fell 72 points Paris lost 71, and Frankfurt is down 103 points.
Asian markets finished stronger yesterday with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 323 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 162 and China’s Shanghai Composite added 8 points.
The Australian share market shares closed modestly higher on Thursday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 29 points stronger at 4,673 and on the futures market the SPI200’s down 72 points.
On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:35AM was buying 89.44 US cents, 80.41 Yen, 64.02 Euro cents and 55.45 Pence Sterling.
To what’s ahead in economic news today, the Melbourne Institute bulletin of economic trends will be released, and the Reserve Bank of Australia releases financial aggregates data for December.
In company news about this morning: Qantas's (ASX:QAN) shares rose 1.06% yesterday to close at $2.87. Singapore will be the new hub for Jetstar flights in Asia and its launch pad for services to Europe. Qantas’ (ASX:QAN) budget offshoot has been considering for three years whether to make Singapore its Asian hub. But now its confirmed Jetstar will operate its highest number of services and base its largest number of A320 aircraft in Asia at Changi Airport.The expansion in Singapore is likely to mean it will boost its maintenance operations and cabin-crew base there over coming years. Qantas’ 2009 net profit was $117 million.
BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) shares added 0.99% to close at $40.70. BHP Billiton has agreed to acquire Athabasca Potash Inc for just over $4 per share with the total value of the transaction being approximately $357 million. BHP is looking to diversify into potash production after prices for the raw material soared in 2008 as farmers sought to raise crop yields.Athabasca has one of the largest exploration permit areas in the so-called Saskatchewan basin in Canada, covering nearly 7,000 square kilometres. BHP Billiton’s 2009 net profit result was just over $7.2 billion
Taking a look at ex-dividends: Djerriwarrh Investments is going ex-dividend today with a 10 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities: Gold fell $1.20 to just over US$1,084 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. For the March contract silver lost 23 cents to US$16.21 and copper is down 12 cents at US$3.10.
The price of oil slipped 11 cents to US$73.78 a barrel for March light crude in New York.
