The Australian share market may open flat or slightly lower this morning after receiving no lead from Wall St overnight with US markets closed for Presidents Day.
European markets managed to close marginally higher on Monday, as investors await the outcome of talks between eurozone ministers on a plan to help lift Greece out of its financial crisis.
A fall in oil prices hurt by China’s moves to slow its booming economy, may put pressure on energy stocks today.
Taking a look at the figures and European stocks were higher. London’s FTSE rose 25 points, Paris gained 10 and Frankfurt is up 11 points.
To Asian stocks and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite were closed for Chinese New Year, Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 79 points.
Back to the local market and Australian stocks closed lower on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 17 points to 4,546 and on the futures market the SPI200’s down 4 point.
On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:45AM was buying 88.93 US cents, 56.79 Pence Sterling, 80.04 Yen and 65.42 Euro cents.
In local economic news out today: The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics is to release a report on its review of the Reserve Bank of Australia's 2008 Annual Report, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry small business survey for the December quarter is due out, the RBA minutes from its February 2 board meeting, NAB is to release its monthly business survey for January, and the Melbourne Institute releases its February quarter Wages Report.
Companies reporting: OneSteel, GWA International, Mirvac Group, Foster's Group, SEEK, Wattyl Group, Primary Health Care and Photon Group release first-half results.
And Westpac is to release its first-quarter trading update.
Turning now to company news: Shares in investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX:MQG) fell 0.27% to $47.22 yesterday. There are reports that the company is looking to launch a physical oil trading business in Singapore. Macquarie Group already runs a paper oil trading business. According to a report from the Dow Jones Newswires, head of oil and gas Asia at Macquarie Group’s energy markets division, David Heard says the group sees a particular opportunity in physical oil trading from an Asian viewpoint. Mr Heard says this opportunity is being created as the region consolidates its leading position based on the growth of substantial new refining capacity, feeding the region's high-growth economies, and taking a greater share of markets as far afield as Europe and the west coast of the Americas. Macquarie Group earned $871 million for the 2009 fiscal year.
Shares in steel maker OneSteel Ltd (ASX:OST) dropped 1.53% to $3.22 yesterday. The company is to help shareholders with less than $500 of shares to sell their shares and allow eligible shareholders to top-up their existing shareholdings without incurring brokerage or handling fees. The offer is designed to reduce the company’s administration expenses by seeking to reduce the number of small shareholdings which is in the interests of all shareholders. OneSteel posted net profit after tax of $229.5 million for fiscal 09.
Taking a look at ex-dividends: going today we have Computershare with a 14 cent 50% franked dividend and Platinum Capital with a 5 cent fully franked dividend. Coming up tomorrow is Boral, SAI Global on Thursday and SMS Management & Technology on Friday.
And finally the price of oil fell 13 cents to US$74 a barrel for March light crude in New York.
