We’re likely to see a weaker start on the Australian share market this morning after the US closed sharply lower on concerns about the economy.
In economic news:The US government reported the trade deficit widened in June to $49.9 billion.
National Association of Realtors reported the median price of a single-family home in the second quarter rose 1.5% over the year to $176,900.
And in other news, the Office of Management and Budget said the budget deficit stood at $165.04 billion in July. Wednesday on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 265 points to 10,379. The S&P 500 Index fell 32 points at 1,089 and the NASDAQ shed 69 points at 2,209.
European stocks were lower; London’s FTSE fell 131 points, Paris dropped 102 and Frankfurt is down 132.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng plunged 179 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 258 points and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 12 points.
Soft results from CBA and signs of slowing economic growth in China and the US pushed the Australian share market lower on Wednesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed down 85 points at 4,456 and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 80 points. The Aussie Dollar at 7:30AM was down against the major currencies, except the Euro, and was buying 89.38 US cents, 57.22 Pence Sterling, 76.24 Yen and 69.65 Euro cents.
Coming up in local economic news: ABS Labour force data for July is coming out, plus the Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Inflationary Expectations and the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Unemployment Expectations for August. And the Reserve Bank also releases its Credit and Debit card data for June.
Making business news this morning: Shares in Primary Health Care Ltd (ASX:PRY) closed 0.57% lower yesterday to $3.47. The Australian Financial Review reports that Primary Health Care is considering issuing about $125 million in retail bonds. It’s a move designed to take advantage of ASIC’s regulatory changes that seek to make bonds as appealing as equities and will ease compliance hurdles that discourage companies from targeting individual investors. The regulator is in the process of creating a draft prospectus with ways to reduce the time and high cost of marketing corporate bonds to retail investors. The changes would help companies refinance their borrowings, with an estimated $95 billion in debt among top 200 listed firms, maturing in 2011. Primary Health Care reported an increase in net profit in 2009 of $108 million.
Shares in Stockland Ltd (ASX:SGP) finished 1.05% lower yesterday to $3.78. The Property developer has a spring in its step as it looks to the future for acquisitions in fiscal 2011 after posting a turnaround in full year profit. Stockland has posted a statutory net profit of $478 million for the year to June 30, up from a heavy loss in the previous year. Underlying net profit, excluding significant items, was $692.3 million, that’s up 10 per cent on fiscal 2009. Total revenue was $2.06 billion, up from $1.85 billion. Stockland says its full year 2010 performance had been driven by volume growth, increased settlements in all states and higher productivity. The property developer is focused on creating a large scale national retirement living business. And put forward a cash offer to acquire Aevum which, if successful, would almost double the size of its retirement business. Stockland posted a $1.80 billion lost in 2009.Going ex-dividend today: AMCIL, 2 cent fully franked. Argo Investments 13 cent fully franked. Milton Corporation 36 cent fully franked and Platinum Capital 5 cent fully franked.
To commodities, and the price of gold added $1.30 overnight to US$1,197 an ounce for the August contract on Comex. Silver is down $0.26 cents to US$17.89 and copper shed $0.06 at $3.25 a pound.
The price of oil is down $2.23 to US$78.02 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
