After three days of gains, the Australian share market is expected to continue that positive trend and open higher this morning.
US stocks rallied overnight with the major indexes hitting highs for the day in the last minutes of trade, as concerns over Europe's debt crisis were offset by a sharp boost in Chinese exports and a strengthening Euro.
In the latest economic news out of the US, a government report showed that jobless claims fell 3,000 to 456,000 last week. The number of people filing for ongoing unemployment insurance fell by 255,000 to 4,462,000, the lowest level since December 2008.
And the Commerce Department said the trade deficit increased 0.6% in April, widening to $40.3 billion from a downwardly revised $40 billion the previous month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 273 points to 10,173. The S&P 500 Index is up 31 points at 1,087 and the NASDAQ gained 60 points to 2,219.
European stocks were higher; London’s FTSE rose 47 points, Paris gained 70 and Frankfurt is up 72.
Asian markets were mixed yesterday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 11 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 104 and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 21.
The Australian share market gained yesterday on robust employment data and strong economic figures from China. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed up 50 points yesterday to 4,435 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 68 points. In currencies at 7:30AM, the Australian dollar was buying 84.84 US cents, 57.69 Pence Sterling, 77.52 Yen and 70.05 Euro cents.
In local economic news coming out today: The Westpac/Melbourne Institute survey of consumer sentiment as a state breakdown.
In company news around this morning: Harvey Norman (ASX:HVN) rose 2.7% to $3.42 yesterday. Chairman Gerry Harvey has reportedly taken a dig at fellow retailers for complaining about current retail conditions. The Herald Sun reports that at a panel discussion for an Australian National Retailers Association, Mr Harvey said he believed the sector is on its way to "the next great boom." The newspaper says that Mr Harvey criticised the panel members, including high profile executives from Woolworths, David Jones, Coles and Bunnings for their less positive outlooks. Harvey Norman’s 2009 net profit was $214 million. The result was less than the $358 million posted in the financial year before.
Shares in Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) rose 1.3% to $51.39 yesterday. Attention will no doubt be on the country’s biggest bank today, CBA and the other big four banks as new figures show that Australian banks collectively made $12.7 billion in fees from their customers last financial year – that’s up nine per cent on the year before. The Reserve Bank of Australia's June quarter bulletin reveals that the business sector copped most of the growth in charges, with fee income from that sector leaping 20% to almost $2.2 billion – despite flat corporate lending growth. Much of the rise in charges on the business sector was driven by fees on current loans as banks re-priced their loan books to account for higher funding costs. The RBA said businesses that used only part of their loan facilities were the hardest hit. In the year to 30 June 2009, CBA posted a $4.7 billion net profit.
Checking ex-dividends, and going today are Cadence Capital with a 2 cent fully franked dividend, Count Financial 2 cent fully franked and Tower with a 3.29 cent unfranked dividend.
To commodities, and the price of gold fell $7.70 to US$1,220.80 an ounce for the June contract on Comex. Silver is up 16 cents at US$18.34 and copper is up 1 cent to US$2.86 a pound.
And the price of oil is up $1.10 to US$75.48 a barrel for July light crude in New York.
