The Australian share market looks set to open sharply lower this morning as fears of a euro zone debt crisis caused stocks to plummet in the US overnight concerns are mounting that debt woes in Europe could hamper the global economic recovery.
Wall St closed well and truly in the red on Tuesday after Standard & Poors cut Greece’s debt rating to junk on concern over the country’s ability to rise above its current fiscal crisis, and also lowered Portugal’s debt rating.
The Dow Jones experienced its biggest one-day point drop since July last year.
In economic news out of the US, the Case Shiller 20 city home price index rose 0.6% in February after a 0.7% fall in January. Economists however expected a rise of 1.1%.
And the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose to a read of 57.9 in April from 52.3 in March, topping economists’ expectations for a rise to 53.5.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 213 points lower at 10,992. The S&P500 Index fell 28 points at 1,184 and the NASDAQ closed 51 points weaker at 2,471.
European stock markets also closed lower. London’s FTSE lost 150 points, Paris declined 153 points and Frankfurt dropped 173 points.
Asian stocks were mixed on Tuesday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 325 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei is up 47 points and China’s Shanghai Composite is 62 points lower.
Turning to the local market now, and The S&P/ASX 200 Index finished 2 points lower at 4,880 on Tuesday, and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 90 points. On to currencies: the Aussie Dollar at 8:45AM was buying 91.67 US cents, 60.12 Pence Sterling, 85.41 Yen and 69.62 Euro cents.
In economic news: The ABS consumer price index for the March quarter is due out today.
To company news around this morning: Shares in Infigen Energy (ASX:IFN), formerly Babcock & Brown Wind Partners, plunged 14.58% to $1.02 yesterday. The company has decided to retain its US wind energy business, discontinuing the sale process. The company says the decision to retain the US business does not change its stated strategy of focusing on further growth of its asset portfolio on opportunities in Australia. Infigen says the Australian renewable energy market is poised for very strong growth over the next ten years and the company is well positioned to benefit from its market leading position in developing, building and operating Australian renewable energy projects. Managing director Miles George says the company has $170 million to fund attractive opportunities for growth in Australia in fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2011. Infigen Energy’s fiscal 09 result came to $189.49 million.
Shares in Centennial Coal Company Ltd (ASX:CEY) closed steady at $4.52 on Tuesday. The Aussie coal miner says it expects a 10% increase in exports over the 2009 financial year and is set to expand further in the 2011 financial year. Centennial says for the March quarter, its equity share of ROM coal production came to 3.2 million tonnes, and 10.5 million tonnes on a year to date basis. Production in the quarter fell 4% from the previous quarter and 22% on the March quarter of last year. Sales of 3 million tonnes dropped 5% compared to the previous quarter and 24% on last year. For the 2009 financial year Centennial Coal booked a $71.2 million profit.
Taking a look now at ex-dividends: And there is just one company going ex-dividend today and that is Bank of Queensland with a 26 cent fully franked dividend. Among those coming up next week we have Alcoa, Henderson Group, and Waterco.
To commodities: The price of gold gained $8.20 to US$1,161.70 an ounce for the April contract on Comex. Silver lost 22 cents to US$18.12 and copper is 16 cents lower at US$3.36.
And the price of oil dropped $1.76 to US$82.44 a barrel for June light crude in New York.
