The Australian share market looks like it may be in for a weak start this morning after Wall St closed lower overnight on the back of a worse than expected existing home sales report.
US stocks gave up earlier gains falling into the red in choppy trade on Tuesday amid a weak existing home sales report and ongoing concern for the debt crisis in Europe.
According to the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales fell to an annual rate of 5.66 million in May, down from 5.77 million in April. Forecasts were for a rise to 6.1 million units.
The Federal Reserve is holdings its monthly monetary policy meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, with an announcement on interest rates and the economy expected Wednesday.
The Central bank is widely tipped to leave rates on hold at historic lows near zero and will continue to do so for some time to come.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 149 points weaker at 10,294. The S&P 500 Index closed 18 points lower at 1,095 and the NASDAQ fell 27 points to close at 2,262.
European stocks were also lower; London’s FTSE is down 52 points, Paris lost 31 and Frankfurt fell 24 points.
Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 93, Tokyo’s Nikkei slipped 125 points and China’s Shanghai Composite advanced 2 points.
The Australian share market finished weaker on Tuesday with the S&P/ASX 200 Index down 54 points at 4,558 and on the futures market the SPI200’s down 45 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:45AM was buying 87.18 US cents, 58.87 Pence Sterling, 78.93 Yen and 71.09 Euro cents.
In company news: Shares in Seven Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:SVW) dropped 2.53% to $6.16 yesterday. There are reports circulating that Kerry Stokes is looking to invest in Agricultural Bank of China. A report in The Australian says Stokes Seven Group Holdings joins several others from around the globe vying to invest in the Hong Kong portion of the AgBank IPO. The paper says it is likely that Seven will invest between US$100 million and US$250 million to become a cornerstone investor in the bank. According to The Australian sovereign wealth funds from Qatar, Kuwait and Singapore are also looking to invest in the Chinese Bank hoping to raise up to US$30 billion. Seven Group Holdings profit in fiscal 2009 was a far cry from its result the year before.
Shares in Sundance Resources Ltd (ASX:SDL) last traded at $0.13. The company has recruited a familiar face to help lead the company through its time of hardship after the wreckage of a plane carrying its entire board was found with no survivors in the African jungle. George Jones, former chairman of Sundance and also Gindalbie Metals has been appointed chairman of the company. The Australian reports Mr Jones saying he feels a responsibility to the company and to the people, and the people that have been lost, that the company continues. Mr Jones says he is determined to rebuild the board, saying the company must go on, and the project the execs were in West Africa to oversee, will be made very successful. Brian Gilbertson, former BHP CEO is to act as non-executive chairman of Jupiter Mines who also lost board members on the flight. Sundance Resources has posted losses in the last three fiscal years.
Checking ex-dividends, while there are no companies going ex-dividend today, there are a number of companies going ex-dividend tomorrow including MAp Group and Transurban Group.
To commodities, and the price of gold added $0.20 to US$1,239.90 an ounce for the June contract on Comex. Silver is up 9 cents at US$18.90 and copper is up 5 cents at $2.99.
And the price of oil dropped 61 cents to US$77.21 a barrel for July light crude in New York.
