The Australian share market is likely to open higher today, following a positive lead from Wall Street as Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernake said US economic recovery is less vigorous than expected but that the Fed has the required tools to aid economic recovery and growth into the next year.
In US economic news: GDP for the June quarter was revised sharply lower to a yearly growth rate of 1.6 per cent, down from the 2.4 per cent expected a month ago. Also, the Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment was 68.9 in August, rising from a rate of 67.8 the month before.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 165 points higher at 10,151. The S&P 500 Index is up 17 points to 1,065 and the NASDAQ is up 35 at 2,154.
European stocks were higher; London’s FTSE up 46 points, Paris is up 32 and Frankfurt up 39.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 15 points on Friday, Tokyo’s Nikkei up 85 points and China’s Shanghai Composite up 7 points.
The Australian share market finished higher on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 14 higher to 4,370 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 41 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:45AM was buying 90.18 US cents, 58.05 Pence Sterling, just over 77 Yen and 70.66 Euro cents.
In local economic news: The ABS is today expected to release business indicators data for the June quarter.
In business news: Shares in BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) were down 0.24% to $37.30 last Friday. BHP’s chief financial officer, Alex Vanselow, yesterday told ABC TV’s Inside Business that BHP’s balance sheet allows it to raise the credit necessary to acquire Potash Corp, adding that its competitors are not in the same position. The miner has submitted a $45 billion hostile offer for Canada’s Potash Corp. BHP last week reported annual profit jumped over 100 per cent to US$12.722 billion in fiscal 2010, up from a net profit of $7.2 billion for the year before.
Shares in Asciano Group (ASX:AIO) were down 1.81% to $1.63 at the end of last week. According to The Australian, Asciano is among the bidders hoping to score a $700 million grain transport contract in Western Australia. The paper reports that Asciano is up against rival, QR National. Last week Asciano reported a net loss of $976 million for fiscal 2010, dragged lower by impairment charges of $1.14 billion. The result is an even greater loss than a loss of $246.4 million posted in the year to June 30 2009.
To ex-dividends, there are twenty companies going ex-dividend today, among them: Anglogold Ashanti with a 2.08 cent unfranked dividend, ASX with an 84 cent fully franked dividend, NIB Holdings with a 5 cent fully franked dividend, Sky Network TV with a 5.65 cent unfranked dividend, Suncorp-Metway with a 20 cent fully franked dividend, and also, WorleyParsons with a 40 cent dividend, 47 per cent franked. To commodities: and the price of gold is up US$0.20 to US $1235 for the September contract on Comex, silver is up US$0.06 to $19.04 and copper is up $0.06 at $3.36 a pound. The price of oil is up $1.81 to US$75.17 a barrel for October light crude in New York.
