Aussie shares may be in for a positive start this morning after Wall St closed stronger overnight. US stocks rallied late on Monday, investors optimistic about earnings to be reported later in the week. In economic news out of the US: The National Association of Home Builders says its Housing Market index, a measure of builder confidence, fell 2 points to a read of 14 in July, its lowest level since April 2009.
On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 57 points higher at 10,154. The S&P 500 Index gained 6 point at 1,071 and the NASDAQ is up 19 points at 2,198.
European stocks were lower; London’s FTSE down 11 points, Paris is down 14 and Frankfurt down 31.
To Asian markets: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 159 points on Monday, Tokyo’s Nikkei was closed and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 51.
The Australian share market finished weaker on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 64 points lower at 4,358 and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 3 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 8:00AM was buying 86.86 US cents, 57.05 Pence Sterling, 75.39 Yen and 67.13 Euro cents.
In local economic news: The RBA is expected to publish the minutes of its July 6 monetary policy meeting, and also due is the Housing Industry-RP Data residential land report for the March quarter.
In business news: Shares in Crown Ltd (ASX:CWN) down 0.65% to $7.68 on Monday. Crown has received in-principle support from the Western Australian Government for their expansion of Burswood Entertainment Complex. The company says they will pay a $20 million up-front fee to the government and has agreed on a 22% to 27% tax increase on electronic gaming machines over five years. The gaming and entertainment company plans to expand their existing casino complex in order to accommodate an increase in gaming product by an additional 250 machines and an increase of an additional 50 gaming tables. Crown says it will spend $350 million on the entertainment complex over the next three years. Crown reported a loss of $1.97 billion for the year ending 30 June 2009.
Shares in Suncorp-Metway Ltd (ASX:SUN) dropped 1.08% to $8.26 yesterday. The Australian Associated Press has reported that the combined automatic teller machine network between Suncorp-Metway Ltd and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX:BEN) went live on Monday. The 2.4 million customers of both banks will now be able to use a network of 2,000 machines throughout the country without a direct fee, says AAP. While the move comes more than three months later than originally planned, AAP reports that there are now 400 more ATM’s than first announced. Suncorp-Metway posted a profit of $348 million for the year ending 30 June, 2009.
Turning to ex-dividends: There is only one company going ex-dividend today and that is Mirrabooka Investments with a 6.5 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities, and the price of gold fell $6.30 to US$1,181.70 an ounce for the July contract on Comex. Silver is down $0.24 cents to US$17.53 and copper is flat at $2.93 a pound.
The price of oil is up $0.53 to US$76.54 a barrel for August light crude in New York.
