Australian shares may open lower today, following a flat finish on Wall St overnight. US stocks closed the session little changed overnight, however managed to claw back from earlier losses after weaker than expected reports on the economy has investors worried.
In US economic news: New claims for unemployment in the US dropped to 429,000 last week, the lowest level since August 2008. The New York Empire Manufacturing survey plummeted to a read of 5.08 in July from 19.57 in June. Economists expected a fall to 18. The Producer Price Index , a measure of wholesale inflation, declined 0.5% in June after dropping 0.3% in May. Economists expected a fall of 0.1%.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 7 points lower at 10,359. The S&P 500 Index is up 1 point at 1,096 and the NASDAQ is down 1 point at 2,249.
European stocks were lower; London’s FTSE down 42 points, Paris is down 51 and Frankfurt down 60.
Asian markets were lower on Thursday: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 305, Tokyo’s Nikkei down 110 and China’s Shanghai Composite down 46.
The Australian share market finished lower on Thursday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 20 points lower at 4,443 and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 8 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:35AM was buying 88.36 US cents, 57.2 Pence Sterling, 77.3 Yen and 68.32 Euro cents.
In business news: Shares in Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) are up 0.74% at $5.46 on Thursday. Iluka Resources has announced an inferred resource of 1.34 million tonnes of heavy mineral for the Typhoon deposit in South Australia. The miner says Typhoon represents approximately a 13% increase on Iluka’s total heavy mineral resource base in the Eucla Basin. General Manager Peter Benjamin says Typhoon is the first deposit delineated as part of a brownfield exploration strategy, focussed on utilising existing infrastructure at the Jacinth-Ambrosia operation. Iluka Resources recorded a loss of $108.6 million for the year ending 30 December, 2009.
Shares in Conquest Mining Ltd (ASX:CQT) down 3.12% at $0.31 on Thursday. Conquest Mining has revved up their takeover offer of North Queensland Metals Ltd (ASX:NQM), outlining the differences between a competing offer from miner, Heemskirk Consolidated Ltd (ASX:HSK). Conquest says Heemskirk’s offer consists entirely of shares, unlike Conquest with no cash component. The miner also says a plan at Heemskirk which has been in place since before the company listed, requires that 20% of the company’s net profit after tax in excess of $250,000 each financial period, be paid in cash as a distribution to executives. Conquest Mining recorded a loss of $1.15 million for the year ending 30 June, 2009.
Turning to ex-dividends: While there are no companies going ex-dividend today, coming up on Monday is Euroz, and Mirrabooka on Tuesday.
To commodities, and the price of gold up $1.30 to US$1,208.10 an ounce for the July contract on Comex. Silver is up $0.07 cents to US$18.35 and copper is steady at $3.00 a pound.
And the price of oil is down $0.42 to US$76.62 a barrel for August light crude in New York.
