Our local market has received a positive lead from Wall Street although key commodities all finished the overnight session lower.
US stocks recovered from an early slide after an increase in retail sales made investors feel better about the economic outlook and that was enough to overshadow concerns about rising unemployment and Greece's debt problems.
Retail sales at stores open a year or more climbed 9.1% in March. Thomson Reuters said it was the biggest monthly gain since it started keeping records back in 2000 and that it beat the company's forecast for a 6.3% rise in yearly sales.
Looking at jobs data: new claims for unemployment rose to 460,000 last week from 442,000 the week before. The result surprised many economists who actually tipped that claims would fall.
Still looking at continuing claims, which measures those receiving job benefits for a week or more, claims fell to 4,550,000 from 4,681,000 the previous week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished with a gain of 30 points to 10,927. The S&P500 Index added 4 points 1,186 and the NASDAQ rose 6 points to 2,437.
European stock markets extended this week’s losses on growing concerns that Greece won't be able to resolve its debt problems without outside help. London’s FTSE fell 49 points, Paris also dropped 49 points and Frankfurt lost 51 points.
In our region: Asian stocks lost ground, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 62 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 125 points and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 30 points.
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 23 points weaker to 4,938 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 27 points. On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:35AM was buying 92.84 US cents, 60.77 Pence Sterling, 86.75 Yen and 69.5 Euro cents.
In economics news, the Australian Industry Group/Housing Industry Association releases their performance of construction index for March.
To company news around this morning: Shares in Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) closed 1.06% lower yesterday at $80. Lawyers for the sacked Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu say he has come to terms with his conviction for bribery and stealing secrets in China. Last night's decision by Hu not to appeal his 10-year jail sentence effectively closes one of the most tense episodes in Australia’s and Rio Tinto’s relationship with China. Hu’s lawyer has declined to explain the reasons for Hu's decision not to join his three Chinese colleagues and lodge appeals to the Shanghai Supreme Court. But The Age newspaper reports that the lawyer said Hu’s wife Julie's physical and mental health “haven't been that good”, suggesting that she might be struggling to come to terms with his sentence. Rio Tinto recorded a $5.4 billion net profit in 2009.
Shares in Mirvac Group (ASX:MGR) closed 3.72% lower to $1.42 yesterday. The Property group has lightened the weight of its funds management business by agreeing to sell its $590 million Mirvac PFA Diversified Property Trust. The buyer is Australian Property Group Growth Fund, which almost a year ago bought Mirvac's Domaine property funds when it controlled about $625 million worth of property. Mirvac’s managing director Nick Collishaw says the latest sale is likely to be settled this month. Mirvac, which delisted the trust from the Bendigo Stock Exchange in July, will sell all shares in Mirvac PFA. A price is yet to be disclosed. Mirvac Group also announced to the ASX yesterday that it had completed its $350m institutional equity raising, which comes as Mirvac conducts due diligence on Westpac Office Trust. Mirvac Group posted a $1 billion loss in 2009.
Coming up next week, there are a number of companies going ex-dividend and they are all fully franked including: CTI Logistics, Cedar Woods Properties, Harvey Norman, IDT Australia, and Wilson HTM Investment Group.
To commodities: The price of gold fell 10 cents to US$1,152.20 an ounce for the May contract on Comex. Silver fell 7 cents to US$18.12 for May and copper is down 1 cent to US$3.58 also for May.
And oil dropped 49 cents to US$85.39 a barrel for May light crude in New York.
