The Australian share market looks like it may open in the red today following a fall in commodities and overseas markets at the end of last week on news that China is to take further steps to ensure that its economy doesn’t grow too fast.
US stocks closed mixed at the end of last week, the Dow tumbling on concerns for the global economic recovery after China told banks to raise reserves for the second time in a month and Europe posted slower than expected growth in the fourth quarter, however a late run in tech shares boosted the Nasdaq.
In economic news: retail sales in the US rose 0.5% in January according to the Commerce Department, above expectations of 0.3% growth.
However a separate report from the University of Michigan showed that consumer sentiment fell to 73.7 in February from 74.4 in January. Economists expected a rise to 75.
Wall St will be closed on Monday for Presidents Day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 45 points to 10,099 points. The S&P500 Index lost 3 points to 1,076 and the NASDAQ is up 6 to 2,184.
To other international markets, European stocks were lower. London’s FTSE fell 19 points, Paris dropped 18, and Frankfurt is down 4 points.
Asian stocks were mixed last Friday with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 22 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 128 and China’s Shanghai Composite added 33 points.
The Australian share market closed in positive territory on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index climbed 8 points to 4,562 and on the futures market the SPI200’s up 1 point.
On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 9:00AM was buying 88.8 US cents, 56.67 Pence Sterling, 80.08 Yen and 65.22 Euro cents.
In local economic news out today: The ABS is to release lending finance data for the month of December.
Companies reporting: BlueScope Steel, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Healthscope are to release their first half results today.
Turning now to company news: Shares in Westpac Banking Corporation Ltd (ASX:WBC) rose 1% to $23.20 last Friday. The bank has received receipt of the Federal Treasurers consent required as part of the process to form a single Authorised Deposit-taking Institution with St George. The bank says the transition to a single ADI still requires APRA approval and Federal Court approval to deregister the corporate entity of St George and assuming these approvals are received, the move to a single ADI is expected to take effect on March 1, 2010. Westpac says the transition to a single ADI is essentially a change in corporate structure and will not impact the operations of the separate St George brand and branches. Westpac reported profit of $3.44 billion in the 12 months to September 30, 2009.
Shares in mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) gained 1.16% to $40.82 at the end of last week. The miner has asked Steel makers in Japan to consider moving to a quarterly pricing system for iron ore and coking coal from the current annual price setting system. According to Reuters CEO Marius Kloppers told the Nikkei business daily that the traditional pricing system is outdated due to wilder fluctuations in steel demand and foreign exchange rates. However Reuters says Japanese steelmakers are opposed to the idea saying that frequent changes in costs would hurt the business of its customers. BHP earned profit of $7.243 billion in fiscal 09.
Taking a look at ex-dividends: Among those companies going ex-dividend today we have the Commonwealth Bank with a $1.20 fully franked dividend and Energy Resources with a 25 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities: Gold fell $9.60 to US$1,103 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. For the March contract, silver dropped 29 cents to US$17.60 and copper declined 5 cents to US$3.31.
The price of oil fell $1.66 cents to US$76.08 a barrel for March light crude in New York.
