The Australian share market is likely to open lower today, following Wall St closing at its lowest level in seven weeks as a worse than expected report of US home sales fuelled concern over economic recovery.
In US economic news: The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales dropped 27 per cent in June to a yearly rate of 3.83 million units, representing the lowest sales growth since 1999, when the association began recording the data, and significantly lower than expected.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 134 points lower at 10,040. The S&P 500 Index is down 15 points to 1,052 and the NASDAQ is down 36 points at 2,124.
European stocks were lower; London’s FTSE down 79 points, Paris is down 62 and Frankfurt down 75.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 230 points on Tuesday, Tokyo’s Nikkei down 122 points and China’s Shanghai Composite up 11 points.
The Australian share market finished lower on Tuesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 48 points lower to 4,381 and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 57 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:45AM was buying 88.14 US cents, 57.24 Pence Sterling, 74.05 Yen and 69.84 Euro cents.
In local economic news: The ABS is expected to release its construction work done data for the June quarter.
In business news: Another busy day for full-year profit results, among the companies expected to report today are BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP), Asciano Group (ASX:AIO), Map Group (ASX:MAP), ING Industrial Fund (ASX:IIF) and Suncorp Metway (ASX:SUN).
Taking a closer look at some results so far: Shares in Sonic Healthcare Ltd (ASX:SHL) were up 3.54% to $10.80 on Tuesday. Sonic Healthcare has reported a 71 per cent increase in net profit to just above $293 million for fiscal 2010, falling within the lower end of its guidance. Revenue dropped slightly from the year before, to $2.99 million. The company says the result was affected by government regulatory changes. Looking ahead, Sonic has widened its profit target from 10-15 per cent to 5-15 per cent expected growth. Sonic Healthcare recorded a profit of $171.36 million for the year ended 30 June 2009.
Shares in AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) were down 8.23% to $1.505 Tuesday. AWE has posted an annual net loss of $28.9 million for the 12 months to 30 June, sliding from a profit of $88.6 million the year before. The company says a drop in oil and gas production is largely due to natural field decline, maintenance at its Bass Gas project and lower oil prices, resulting in a 40 per cent fall in revenue to $354 million. AWE says the 2010 full year loss has been disappointing, falling from a profit of $88.6 million in 2009.
To ex-dividends: Adelaide Brighton is the only coming going ex-dividend today with a 10 cent fully franked dividend. Coming up tomorrow we have Carlton Investments, Downer EDI, K2 Asset Management Holdings, Sedgman and Spark Infrastructure Group.
To commodities: the price of gold is up US$4.90 to $1231, silver is up $0.39 at US $18.37, copper is down $0.05 at $3.24 a pound and oil is down $1.47 at $71.63 for October light crude in New York.
