A positive start is being viewed as likely for Aussie stocks this morning following a mixed finish from Wall St overnight. Gold and oil prices rose while silver and copper prices eased.
The Nasdaq and S&P500 managed to close the session marginally higher on Tuesday with the Dow down slightly. Investors digested minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting while gains in financial stocks and a surge in oil prices helped to lift stocks.
Minutes from the Fed’s last meeting revealed that the US economy continues to improve at a moderate pace and the labor market is stabilising.
The impact of a still weak housing market may drag on the recovery, with central bankers deciding to leave rates at historic levels near zero and said rates will stay at very low levels for the foreseeable future.
A report on consumer credit is due out on Wednesday, jobless claims on Thursday and wholesale inventories on Friday.
To the figures now and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4 points to 10,970 on Tuesday. The S&P500 Index rose 2 points to 1,189 and the NASDAQ added 7 points to 2,437.
European stock markets finished stronger, London’s FTSE advanced 35 points, Paris rose 20 points and Frankfurt gained 17 points.
Asian stocks were mixed on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was closed, Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 57 points and China’s Shanghai Composite was steady.
The Australian share market closed higher on Tuesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 46 points to 4,954, looking at the futures market the SPI200’s up 9. On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 92.7 US cents, 60.78 Pence Sterling, 86.98 Yen and 69.25 Euro cents.
In local economics news out today: The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries VFACTS March new vehicle sales data is to be released.
To company news around this morning: Shares in Lend Lease Group (ASX:LLC) declined 0.12% to $8.67 yesterday. The company has entered into a 50/50 joint venture agreement with London Continental Railways for the planned regeneration of land next to the 2012 Olympics athletes’ village development in London. The agreement, which is worth a potential $3.3 billion, is expected to be signed within the coming weeks. The deal comes after ratings agency Moody’s upgraded the company’s debt following the recapitalisation of its balance sheet after the successful completion of an $806 million equity issue. Lend Lease posted a $653.6 million loss in fiscal 2009.
Shares in Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) rose 0.63% to $25.45 yesterday. According to a Fairfax report ANZ plans to set up an operations hub in Manila, sending more jobs overseas. However the news has caused concerns for the Finance Sector Union who says the new hub will mean that up to 100 banking jobs will be lost from the banks Australian and New Zealand operations. Chief Executive of the Asia Pacific, Alex Thursby, says it makes sense to create an operations hub in the Philippines considering the bank has doubled the size of its business in Asia in the last couple of years. ANZ earned over $2.9 billion in profit during the 12 months to September 30, 2009.
To companies going ex-dividend - And there is just one company today and that is Austbrokers Holdings with a 7.5 cent fully franked dividend. Coming up tomorrow is Matrix Composites & Engineering and Noni B.
To commodities: Gold rose $2.20 to US$1,135.10 an ounce for the May contract on Comex. Silver is down 19 cents to US$17.92 and copper is down 2 cents at US$3.61.
And the price of oil rose $0.22 to US$86.84 a barrel for May light crude in New York.
