The Australian share market is expected to open higher with Wall Street fighting to post modest gains amid negative home sales data and positive news on retail sales and unemployment benefits.
The National Association of Realtors' reported its January index of home sales agreements fell 7.6%, which was worse than expected and the lowest level since last April.
Sales tracker Thomson Reuters said retail sales picked up the pace in February and rose by 4%.
And the Labour Department said number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment fell to 469,000 last week from 498,000 the previous week. While continuing claims, a measure of Americans who have been receiving benefits for a week or more, fell to 4.5 million from 4.634 million last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 47 points to 10,444 points. The S&P500 Index closed up 4 points to 1,123 and the NASDAQ added 12 at 2,292.
European stocks closed weaker. London’s FTSE fell 6 points, Paris lost 14 and Frankfurt is down 23.
Asian stocks closed lower with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 301 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 107 and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 74 points.
The local share market closed slightly higher on Thursday, lifted by gains in the miners on stronger base metal prices. The S&P/ASX 200 Index added 15 points to 4,751 and on the futures market the SPI200’s is up 21 points. On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 90.08 US cents, 59.93 Pence Sterling, 80.28 Yen and 66.34 Euro cents.
To company news around this morning: Shares in Westpac (ASX:WBC) closed lower yesterday, slipping 0.19% to $26.94. Westpac plans to tap into the expatriate banking market by reopening a branch for retail customers in London. The bank has had a presence in the city since 1853 but in recent years has reduced its retail network to focus mainly on corporate clients. Westpac says a new cashless retail branch will open in early 2011 in the heart of London's financial district. The aim of the new branch is to help expat Australian and New Zealand customers manage their finances as well open bank accounts for those planning to move down under. Looking at net profit results, Westpac’s 2009 net profit result was just over $3.4 billion.
Shares in BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) closed stronger yesterday, adding 1.46% to $42.28. Finally after a long period of devastating rains, BHP Billiton says it expects to be back on schedule with coal shipments from its mines in Queensland’s Bowen Basin by the end of the quarter. Heavy rains in the region, which is known as the world’s premier source of coking coal, have flooded towns and caused an estimated $135 million worth of damage. Coal shipments have been suspended due to rail networks and ports being affected. It’s not yet known exactly how many shipments have been delayed but one estimate puts the amount of coal lost at about 10 million tonnes. The heavy rains have also raised expectations that the contract price for coking coal, which is used in steel making, will rise substantially from the 1st of April. BHP Billiton’s 2009 net profit result was just over $7.2 billion.
To commodities: Gold is down $9.60 to US$1,133.70 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. For the May contract Silver is down 10 cents to US$17.23 and copper fell 6 cents at US$3.38.
And finally the price of oil slipped 43 cents to US$80.44 a barrel for April light crude in New York.
