The Australian share market is likely to open weaker this morning following big falls on Wall St overnight.
US stocks slumped on Monday as the Euro hit a four year low against the US dollar heightening concerns for the debt crisis in Europe and its impact on the global economy. Industrial and technology stocks were the hardest hit in Monday’s session.
Worries that the US could fall into a ‘double dip’ recession has plagued markets for over a month now.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke was expected to answer questions about the economy on Monday night.
To the figures, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 115 points to close at 9,816. The S&P500 Index is down 14 points at 1,050 and the NASDAQ lost 45 points to 2,174.
European stocks also finished weaker; London’s FTSE lost 57 points, Paris is down 42 and Frankfurt declined 34 points.
Asian markets closed lower on Monday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is closed, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 380 and China’s Shanghai Composite is 42 points lower.
The Australian share market closed weaker on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 124 points to finish at 4,326 and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 37 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 9:00AM was buying 81.17 US cents, 56.1 Pence Sterling, 74.29 Yen and 68.1 Euro cents. In local economic news: Out today are the NSW and QLD state budgets, NAB monthly business survey for May, Dun and Bradstreet business expectations survey for June, and the Housing Industry Association Population and Residential Hotspots for 2009.
In company news around this morning: Shares in gaming machine operator Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH) closed 0.91% weaker at $6.50 yesterday. The Australian Financial Review reports that Tabcorp may be reconsidering plans to spend $65 million on an entertainment centre at Star City Casino in Sydney following news that NSW Premier Kristina Keneally rejected the company’s plan to fund the centre. The Fin Review says Tabcorp requested 1000 extra poker machines to help fund the construction of the centre, taking its total number of pokie machines to 2,500, the same as James Packer’s Crown Casino in Melbourne. Star City is already in the middle of a $575 million revamp, which will include a new five-star hotel, restaurants and nightclubs. Tabcorp reported a profit of $521.7 million for the 2009 financial year after a loss the year before.
Shares in shipbuilder Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) closed 8.8% higher at $2.35 on Monday. The company says the US Navy has exercised contract options enabling funding for Austal’s equipment needed for the construction of two additional 103 metre Joint High Speed Vessels. Austal says the award is valued at approximately $121 million, and is reinforces the US Navy’s support for this major US defence program and provides clear signals that options 4 and 5 will be taken up. The company says it has contracts to build the first three vessels as part of a 10 year program valued at up to $2 billion. Austal posted a profit for fiscal 09, although a far cry from its result the year before.
Checking ex-dividends now, and while there are no companies going ex-dividend today, coming up tomorrow we have CSR, HGL on Thursday, and Count Financial and Tower on Friday.
To commodities, and the price of gold rose $23.10 to US$1,239.30 an ounce for the June contract on Comex. Silver is up 86 cents at US$18.15 and copper fell 5 cents at US$2.76.
And the price of oil fell $0.07 to US$71.44 a barrel for July light crude in New York.
