The Australian share market looks like it may be in for a flat start this morning after US stocks closed marginally higher overnight, gold and silver futures prices were lower however copper and oil prices rose.
Wall St managed to edge higher on Tuesday thanks to a better than expected report on consumer confidence, indications of further weakness, however, in the housing market weighed on the market.
The Conference Board reports that its Consumer Confidence index rose to a read of 52.5 in March from 46.4 in February, economists expected a rise to 51.
In a separate report, the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index showed that home prices fell 0.4% in January after falling 3.1% in December.
To the figures now and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 12 points to 10,907 on Tuesday. The S&P500 Index closed flat at 1,173 and the NASDAQ is 6 points higher at 2,411.
European stock were lower, London’s FTSE down 38 points, Paris fell 13 points and Frankfurt declined 14 points.
Asian stocks closed higher on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is up 137 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei advanced 111 points and China’s Shanghai Composite added 5 points.
The Australian share market closed stronger on Tuesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index up 20 points to 4,917 and on the futures market the SPI200’s down a point. On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:35AM was buying 91.83 US cents, 60.94 Pence Sterling, 85.23 Yen and 68.46 Euro cents.
In economic news: RBA financial aggregates data for February is to be released today, as well as the ABS retail trade and building approvals data also for February.
To company news around this morning: Shares in printing and distribution company PMP Ltd (ASX:PMP) closed steady at $0.72 yesterday. The company has secured the catalogue distribution contract for retailer Target Australia. General manager of distribution, David Chesser, hailed the appointment by Target as a watershed moment in the company’s distribution history. Mr Chesser says the target distribution contract is one of the biggest to come up for tender in Australia this year. PMP posted a loss of $27.17 million for the 2009 financial year.
Shares in coal resource explorer Link Energy Ltd (ASX:LNC) closed steady at $1.66 on Tuesday. The company has secured up to $81 million in additional funding. Link says it has entered into a convertible loan agreement with New York institutional investor SpringTree Special Opportunities Fund for the provision of additional funding which will replace the undrawn $20 million Yorkville Advisors facility. CEO Peter bond says the facility provides Link with an alternative source of funding to provide the company with flexibility to continue to execute its business plan for the foreseeable future and prior to the conclusion of a coal asset sale. Mr Bond says the facility has the added benefit of being able to be cancelled by the company at any time if it is no longer required. Link Energy reported a $42.18 million loss for the 12 months to June 30, 2009.
Turning to ex-dividend’s, and going today we have Gowing Brothers with a 5 cent fully franked dividend, National Can Industries with a 3 cent fully franked dividend and ThinkSmart with a 2 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities: Gold dropped $5.80 to US$1,104.50 an ounce for the May contract on Comex. Silver fell nearly 6 cents to US$17.32 and copper rose almost 3 cents to US$3.56.
And oil added $0.20 to US$82.37 a barrel for May light crude in New York.
