Australian shares may be in for a flat start this morning after Wall St closed slightly higher at the end of last week, however commodities fell.
US stocks managed to claw their way back into positive territory on Friday led by gains in technology stocks.
News of growing debt woes in Europe battered stocks on Friday, adding to concerns about the outlook for the US economy.
Strength in the US dollar weighed on commodity prices, oil and gold stocks and may add some pressure to local resource companies today.
Looking at economic news; The Labor Department reports that employers slashed 20,000 jobs from their payrolls last month. Economists expected employers to add 15,000 jobs.
To the scoreboard, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 10 points to 10,012 points. The S&P500 Index added 3 points to 1,066 and the NASDAQ is up 16 to 2,141.
To other international markets, European stocks fell. London’s FTSE dropped 78 points, Paris lost 125, and Frankfurt is down 99 points.
Asian stocks also fell on Friday with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 677 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei is down 299 and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 56 points.
Aussie stocks closed lower on Friday with the S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 108 points lower at 4,514 and on the futures market the SPI200’s is down 11 points.
On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:45AM was buying 86.86 US cents, 77.78 Yen, 63.57 Euro cents and 55.72 Pence Sterling.
In company news about this morning: Shares in online travel booking service provider Wotif.com Holdings Ltd (ASX:WTF) rose 0.15% to $6.53 at the end of last week. According to reports the company is looking to expand its business into India as it seeks to grow it online accommodation website. The Australian Financial Review reports that Wotif.com CEO Robbie Cooke says the company has gained traction in the Asian market but India is an exciting growth opportunity. Wotif.com sells accommodation in 49 countries with over 14,500 properties listed. Wotif.com reported a profit of $43.53 million for the 2009 financial year.
Shares in uranium miner Extract Resources Ltd (ASX:EXT) dropped 3.44% to $7.30 last Friday. Extract has responded to media speculation concerning the company's current process to assess strategic partnership opportunities. An article in the Australian Financial Review indicated that Korea Electric Power Corp is leading a Korean Consortium looking for a 15% interest in the company’s Rossing South project. Extract says it has received extensive interest from a number of parties seeking to participate in the project’s development which it continues to assess. Extract says this assessment forms part of an ongoing strategic partnership review and says the market will be informed of the outcome upon completion of the review process. Extract Resources recorded a loss for fiscal 2009.
Taking a look at ex-dividends: Going today is Alesco Corporation with a 7 cent fully franked dividend and Navitas with an 8.1 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities: Gold fell $9.50 to US$1,053.50 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. For the March contract silver fell 47 cents to US$14.88 and copper is down 2 cents at US$2.86.
The price of oil is down $2.94 to US$71.19 a barrel for March light crude in New York.
