The Australian share market looks likely to open higher today, as US stocks closed the session stronger following encouraging jobs and housing data.
In US economic news: Weekly jobless claims dropped to 472,000 for the week ended 28 August, a fall of 6,000 claims. Also, the National Association of Realtors revealed pending home sales in July increased unexpectedly by 5.2 per cent.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 51 points higher at 10,320. The S&P 500 Index rose 10 points to close at 1,090 and the NASDAQ closed 23 points stronger at 2,200.
European stocks were basically flat; London’s FTSE was up 5 points, Paris gained 8 and Frankfurt was steady.
Asian markets were higher on Thursday: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 245 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 136 points and China’s Shanghai Composite closed 33 points higher.
The Australian share market finished stronger on Thursday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 37 points higher to 4,533 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 30 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:50AM was buying 91.13 US cents, 59.21 Pence Sterling, 76.82 Yen and 71.05 Euro cents.
In local economic news due out today: The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries car sales data for August, and also expected, the Australian Industry Group/Commonwealth Bank Australian performance of services index for August.
In business news: Shares in Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) were 0.61% down at $4.89 on Thursday. According to The Australian, Fortescue Metals is facing a lawsuit from a major US shareholder, Leucadia National. The paper reports Leucadia is suing Andrew Forrest’s company for alleged misleading and deceptive behaviour. Adding, that Leucadia stands to lose US$826 million in expected returns from a US$100 million subordinated loan note, with Fortescue advising its shareholder of its intention to raise cash with an addition note issue. Fortescue Metals Group reported a profit of $626.13 million in fiscal 2009, rising to a profit of US$581 million in fiscal 2010.
Shares in Origin Energy Ltd (ASX:ORG) were 0.13% down at $15.49 on Thursday. Origin Energy has been awarded a geothermal exploration concession in Indonesia as part of a consortium. The oil and gas producer and Tata Power of India, in consortium with PT Supraco Indonesia, will test the resource over the next 18 months, and if successful expect to begin construction in late 2012. Origin advises it holds a 47.5 per cent stake in the concession and estimates the site could produce between 200-300 megawatts of geothermal generation capacity. Origin Energy posted a net profit of $6.9 billion in fiscal 2009.
To ex-dividends: There are 11 companies going ex-dividend today, among them, Aristocrat Leisure with a 3.5 cent unfranked dividend, Fairfax Media with a 1.4 cent fully franked dividend, Trojan Equity with a 3.6 cent fully franked dividend and West Australian Newspapers Holdings with a 26 cent fully franked dividend.
Turning to commodities: The price of gold is down $5.20 to US$1251 for the September contract on Comex, silver fell $0.28 to $19.64 and copper is up $0.02 to $3.49.