With positive leads from Wall Street and mixed results on commodities markets overnight, the Australian share market is expected to open higher this morning.
US stocks managed gains as key economic data pointed to improvements in the manufacturing sector, which helped to offset a disappointing outlook from retailer, Wal-Mart.
The Philadelphia Fed index, which is a regional reading on manufacturing rose to 17.6 in February from 15.2 in January.
On the jobs front, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment rose to 473,000 last week, up from 442,000 in the previous week.
The Producer Price index (PPI), which is a measure of wholesale inflation, rose a seasonally adjusted 1.4% in January, versus a 0.4% increase in December.
And the index of leading economic indicators (LEI) rose 0.3% in January after rising 1.2% in December.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 84 points to 10,393 points. The S&P500 Index added 7 points to 1,107 and the NASDAQ gained 15 to 2,242.
To other international markets, European stocks rose. London’s FTSE gained 48 points, Paris gained 23 and Frankfurt rose 32 points.
Asian stocks were mixed with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 112 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 29 and China’s Shanghai Composite is closed for Chinese New Year.
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday as investor sentiment was affected by mixed earnings results from Qantas and Wesfarmers.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 13 points to 4,655 and on the futures market the SPI200’s up 45 points.
On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:55AM was buying 89.7 US cents, 57.69 Pence Sterling, 82.26 Yen and 66.23 Euro cents.
There are a number of Australian companies reporting today continuing Hutchison Telecommunications, which delivers its annual results, while first-half results are due from Billabong International, Centennial Coal Company, and PaperlinX.
To company news around this morning:
Shares in Adelaide Brighton (ASX:ABC) closed lower yesterday, slipping 4.21% to $2.50, after the company forecast a fall in cement demand in 2010 - hurt by a high Aussie dollar and slump in commercial building construction. The Adelaide based cement maker posted a 1.9 per cent rise in full-year net profit to around $123 million, up from about $120 million the year before. The company gave a guidance of between $105 million and $115 million for 2010 and says it expects profit to slip and demand for cement to fall by 5%. Adelaide Brighton also added that a recovery in residential construction in Australia was under way but it is expected to be soft in 2010. Adelaide Brighton’s 2008 net profit result was $120 million.
Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) shares closed lower yesterday, down 1.12% to $72.10. Rio’s CFO Guy Elliot has reaffirmed the mining company’s interest in joint ventures with Chinese companies - despite bad press for Rio in China over four employees facing prosecution there for bribery and obtaining trade secrets. The interest was mentioned in a meeting with two Nomura International analysts, Mr Elliot, who also said that “Large-scale” acquisitions are “inappropriate” in the near-term and that Rio is likely to continue its focus on expanding its iron ore business in Western Australia. The analysts say the meeting has reinforced their positive view on the stock, adding that they have a “buy” recommendation on Rio. It comes as four Rio employees, including Australian Stern Hu, were formally indicted on trade secrets and bribery charges in China last week. Rio Tinto’s 2008 net profit result was $5.3 billion.
Taking a look at ex-dividends: Healthscope is among those going ex-dividend today with a 11.5 cent fully franked dividend. Slater and Gordon with a 2 cent fully franked dividend and SMS Management and Tech is also going with a 12.5 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities: Gold has slipped $1.10 lower to US$1,119 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. For the March contract, silver fell 8 cents to US$16.02 and copper rose 5 cents at US$3.31.
And finally the price of oil is up $1.03 cents to US$78.36 a barrel for March light crude in New York.
