The Australian share market is likely to open higher this morning following gains on Wall St overnight, resource stocks may also lift as a result of stronger commodities and metals prices.
U.S. stocks closed the session stronger on Tuesday, lifted by reports of a rescue plan to pull Greece out of heavy debt, with the Dow Jones posting its biggest one-day percentage gain in three months.
The release of solid quarterly company results and profit forecasts prompted mid and smallcap stocks to rise.
Also released in the U.S. overnight, wholesale inventories dropped 0.8% in December after advancing 1.6% the month before, despite economists predicting they would rise 0.5%.
To the scoreboard, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 150 points to 10,059 points. The S&P500 Index gained 14 points to 1,071 and the NASDAQ is up 25 to 2,151.
To other international markets, European stocks rose. London’s FTSE gained 20 points, Paris rose 5, and Frankfurt is up 13 points.
Asian stocks were mixed on Tuesday with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 239 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei is down 19 and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 14 points.
Aussie stocks closed lower on Tuesday with the S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 16 points lower at 4,505 and on the futures market the SPI200’s up 40 points.
On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:50AM was buying 87.85 US cents, 78.80 Yen, 63.72 Euro cents and 55.93 Pence Sterling.
In economic news out today: The Australian Bureau of Statistics is set to release its housing finance figures for December, and the Westpac/Melbourne Institute survey of consumer sentiment for January is also due out today.
Reporting earnings today: Commonwealth Bank, Boral, Stockland, BHP Billiton, Computershare and Devine are expected to release their first-half results.
In company news about this morning: Shares in Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) fell 0.28% to $66.99 on Tuesday. The mining giant has appointed two non-executive directors to its boards ahead of the release of its annual results tomorrow. Ann Godbehere and Robert Brown will fill spaces left by David Clementi and David Mayhew, who have announced they will retire this year. Ms Godbehere, who was CFO at Swiss Re, will succeed Mr Clementi as chair of the audit committee. Rio Tinto reported a profit of $5.3 billion in the 2008 calendar year.
Shares in ORH Ltd (ASX:ORH) up 18.18% to 3.9 cents on Tuesday. The mining and engineering services company is to acquire Resco Services and its related company Springsure Mining for 369 million shares. The deal is conditional upon regulatory and shareholder approvals, and ORH raising a minimum of $22 million, which will be applied primarily for debt reduction across the Resco Group. Resco has operations across 11 locations in NSW and Queensland. ORH recorded a loss of just over $2 million for fiscal 2009.
Taking a look at ex-dividends: While there are no companies going ex-dividend today, coming up tomorrow is Argo Investments, Hills Industries, JB Hi-Fi and Milton Corporation, and on Friday, WAM Capital is going ex-dividend.
To commodities: Gold rose $5.80 to US$1,072 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. For the March contract silver is up 35 cents to US$15.43 and copper is up 8 cents at US$3.
The price of oil is up $1.96 to US$73.85 a barrel for March light crude in New York.
