Returning from the Anzac long weekend, the local share market looks set for a flat or slightly higher start this morning following a mixed lead from Wall St overnight, with the miners likely to get a boost from higher base and precious metals prices.
The Dow Jones managed to squeeze out a gain on strong earnings from Caterpillar, however a sell-off in financials dragged the banks down and pressured the broader market, with the S&P500 and Nasdaq closing in the red.
Caterpillar saw its shares rally after the heavy-machine maker booked a first quarter profit that topped analyst expectations and raised its 2010 sales and earnings outlook.
A proposal to overhaul financial regulation that could put a dent bank profits by restricting derivatives trading faced a Senate test vote on Monday which weighed heavily on financial stocks during the session.
While there were no economic reports released in Monday, a statement from the US Federal Reserve is due out on Wednesday at the conclusion of its two day policy meeting, reports on jobless claims, consumer confidence and GDP are also due out later in the week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished just under a point higher at 11,205. The S&P500 Index is down 5 points at 1,212 and the NASDAQ closed 7 points lower 2,523.
European stock markets closed higher. London’s FTSE gained 30 points, Paris rose 46 points and Frankfurt added 73 points.
Asian stocks were mixed on Monday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 343 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei is up 251 points and China’s Shanghai Composite is 14 points lower.
Turning to the local market now, and The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 26 points lower at 4,882 on Friday last week, and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 10 points. On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:50AM was buying 92.77 US cents, 60.01 Pence Sterling, 87.16 Yen and 69.26 Euro cents.
In economic news out today: the ABS producer price indices for March are to be released, as well as the National Australia Bank business confidence survey for the March quarter.
To company news around this morning: Shares in steel maker BlueScope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) rose 0.72% to $2.78 on Friday last week. There are reports that the company has expressed its concerns over the potential tie-up between BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) iron ore assets in WA. The Australian Financial Review reports that BlueScope has lodged a submission with the ACCC strongly objecting the potential joint venture between the two mining heavy weights, saying that the potential alliance could cause a lessening of competition in the already concentrated raw materials market. The paper reports that rising iron ore prices are also prompting further scrutiny from European regulators into the merger. BlueScope Steel is Australia’s largest steel maker and only buyer of iron ore, of which it sources majority of this ore from BHP. For the 12 months to June 30, 2009 BlueScope Steel posted a loss of over $66 million.
Shares in mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) fell 0.53% to $76.45 last Friday. The miner has reported an alumina spill in the Northern Territory. Rio’s aluminium division, Rio Tinto Alcan has reportedly spilled alumina into a harbour near its Grove refinery in the Northern Territory. According to the Australian Financial Review, a spokesperson says that while the exact amount is unknown at this stage, it is less than 30 tonnes. In 2009, Rio Tinto earned over $5.4 billion.
Taking a look now at ex-dividends: And there is just one company going ex-dividend today, and that is Kresta Holdings with 2 cent fully franked dividend. Coming up tomorrow we have Bank of QLD.
To commodities: The price of gold gained $0.40 to US$1,153.50 an ounce for the June contract on Comex. Silver added 14.5 cents to US$18.33 and copper is up 1.5 cents at US$3.53.
And the price of oil dropped $0.92 to US$84.20 a barrel for June light crude in New York.
