The Australian share market is expected to open slightly higher this morning following mixed leads from offshore trading.
Wall Street posted modest gains as investors debated falling oil prices against strength in the financial services sector and an upbeat report on wholesale inventories.
The US Commerce Department said wholesale inventories fell 0.2% in January, after a 1% drop the month before.
Separately, the Labor Department said 30 states and Washington D.C., reported rising unemployment rates in January, that’s down from the December result.
And the Treasury Department said the government suffered a record $220 billion budget deficit in February after a shortfall of $42.6 billion in January. It was the 17th consecutive monthly deficit and was larger than the $221 billion shortfall economists had forecast.
To the figures now and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 3 points to 10,567. The S&P500 Index edged up 5 points at 1,146 and the NASDAQ rose 18 points to 2,359.
European stocks closed stronger. London’s FTSE gained 38 points, Paris is up 34 and Frankfurt is 51 points higher.
Asian stocks were mixed with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was flat points, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 4 and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 20 points.
The local share market closed steady yesterday with the S&P/ASX 200 Index finished at 4,820 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 20 points. On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:45AM was buying 91.46 US cents, 61.07 Pence Sterling, 82.8 Yen and 67 Euro cents.
In local economic news: The Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes its February labour force report with many economists tipping that we’ll see a rise in employment.
Also out for March is the Melbourne Institute survey of consumer inflationary expectations and the Westpac-Melbourne Institute survey of consumer unemployment expectations.
To company news around this morning:
News Corp (ASX:NWS) shares slipped 0.87% yesterday to close at $18.30. New Corp will start charging for online content of its British newspapers in the near future. Head of the Media Company’s European and Asian operations James Murdoch said exact details of the business model for charging readers will be forthcoming. The action puts News Corp at the forefront of a drive to start charging for widespread consumer content online. News Corp flagged its intentions last year to begin charging for its UK papers, include the Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun. News Corp posted a $4.1 billion loss in 2009.
Macquarie Group (ASX:MQG) shares added 0.45% yesterday to finished at $49.05. Macquarie Group has revealed plans to buy more US assets to gain a larger slice of the world’s biggest investment-banking market. Tim Bishop, CEO of Macquarie Capital’s US division says the investment bank plans to expand US teams advising energy, industrial and technology companies and has over $4 billion in excess capital ready for opportunities. The expansion follows Macquarie’s five North American acquisitions made in 2009. Bishop says the investment bank aims to carve out a niche selling advice on mergers, stock and bond sales to companies with a market value under$5 million. Macquarie Group’s 2009 net profit was $871 million.
There are a number of companies going ex-dividend today including, Cash Converters with a 1.5 cent fully franked dividend and Dominion Mining with a 2 cent unfranked dividend. Over the page and Panoramic Resources 10 cent fully franked and Transfield Services with a 5 cent fully franked.
To commodities: Gold dropped $14.10 to US$1,108.20 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. For the May contract Silver fell 3 cents to US$17.31 and copper is down 4 cents at US$3.37.
And finally the price of oil rose 49 cents to US$81.98 a barrel for April light crude in New York.
