With Wall Street closing higher overnight and metals and commodities prices firmer, the Australian share market is expected to open stronger this morning.
US stocks gained after European leaders pledged to help Greece with its growing debt crisis.
The latest US jobs data also propped up the market. The Labor Department said new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week. Benefits dropped by 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 440,000, the lowest level in a month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 106 points to 10,144 points. The S&P500 Index rose 10 points to 1,078 and the NASDAQ is up 30 to 2,177.
To other international markets, European stocks were mixed. London’s FTSE gained 29 points, Paris dropped 19, and Frankfurt is down 32 points.
Asian stocks were higher with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 368 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 31 and China’s Shanghai Composite inched 3 points higher.
The Australian share market closed in positive territory yesterday following stronger-than-expected employment data.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 41 points to 4,554 and on the futures market the SPI200’s up 40 points.
The Aussie Dollar at 8:45AM was buying 89.06 US cents, 56.72 Pence Sterling, 79.91 Yen and 65.05 Euro cents.
In local economic news: the Reserve Bank of Australia releases credit and debit card spending data for December.
Companies reporting their first-half results today include Leighton Holdings, Newcrest Mining and Telecom New Zealand.
That brings us to company news: Leighton Holdings (ASX:LEI) shares closed higher yesterday, adding 3.21% to $38.30. Leighton CEO, Wal King, has urged the Australian Government to provide more certainty on industrial relations. In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Mr King raised concern about a recent strike by 1600 workers at Woodside Petroleum’s LNG project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Leighton also has LNG contracts in WA. Mr King believes the government needs to provide more certainty on future directions with the new inspectorate to replace the Australian Building & Construction Commission. Leighton Holdings 2009 net profit came in at $440 million.
Sunland Group (ASX:SDG) shares fell yesterday, dropping 2.65% to 73.5 cents. The property developer has threatened to take legal against Fairfax after the media group reported that it misled the ASX on three separate occasions. On Wednesday, a Fairfax report claimed Sunland had said that it and its senior executive had never been investigated in connection with the fraud prosecution of two Australians in Dubai. But in a statement released yesterday, Sunland rejected the accusations and said at no stage have the persons accused, Mr Matt Joyce or Marcus Lee, been employed by Sunland, either in Australia or overseas. Sunland Group posted a $145 million loss in 2009.
Taking a look at ex-dividends: Alumina is going with a 2 cent fully franked dividend and WAM Capital is also going today with a 4 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities: Gold jumped $18.90 to just over US$1,095 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. For the March contract, silver lifted 29 cents to US$15.59 and copper added 15 cents at US$3.13.
The price of oil is slightly higher, adding 62 cents to US$75.14 a barrel for March light crude in New York.
