The local share market is likely to open lower this morning following a negative lead from Wall St overnight, although gold miners are likely to benefit from skyrocketing gold prices.
US stocks closed in the red on Wednesday, investors nervous about the state of the economy’s recovery.
The tech heavy Nasdaq pulled down by Adobe’s decline, with investors not happy with the software giant’s comments that sales and earnings in the next quarter may fall short of expectations.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 22 points lower at 10,739. The S&P 500 Index fell 6 to close at 1,134 and the NASDAQ dropped 15 closing at 2,335.
European stocks were also lower: London’s FTSE down 24 points, Paris lost 49 and Frankfurt slipped 68.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 45 points higher on Wednesday, Tokyo’s Nikkei down 36 points and China is closed for the Mid Autumn Holiday.
The Australian share market finished flat on Wednesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 8 points higher at 4,625 and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 14 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:30AM was buying 95.68 US cents, 61.13 Pence Sterling, 80.9 Yen and 71.42 Euro cents.
In local economic news: Out today is the Melbourne Institute Household Saving and Investment Report for the September quarter.
In business news: Shares in global miner BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) rose 0.46% to $38.90 on Wednesday. News broke last night that Canada’s Potash Corp is suing BHP for being misleading. The Australian Financial Review reports that Potash has filed a civil suit in the US federal court of Illinois claiming that BHP’s hostile US$40 billion takeover bid is unusually coercive because it only aimed at gaining control of 50.1 per cent of the company. The paper says under Canadian takeover law, compulsory acquisition is allowed with two thirds control. Potash Corp is also claiming the miner mislead the market by saying it only began considering an acquisition of the company in May 2010, with the takeover target accusing BHP of attempting to drive down the price of stock much earlier than this to make an acquisition possible. BHP booked a profit of $15.26 billion for the 2010 financial year.
Shares in shipbuilder Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) added 5.53% to $2.48 yesterday. CEO Bob Browning has resigned, saying he feels he has accomplished all that he set out to achieve during his two years at the head of the company. Chairman John Rothwell will assume the role of executive chairman for the mean time whilst the company evaluates its future requirements. Austal says Mr Browning’s resignation will be effective from November 15. Austal posted a profit of $37.13 million for the 12 months to June 30, 2010.
To ex-dividends: Just one company going ex-dividend today and that is Wridgways Australia with an 11 cent fully franked dividend. Among those coming up tomorrow is Aurora Sandringham and Aspen Group.
To commodities: and the price of gold is up $17.80 to US$1290 an ounce for the September contract on Comex, silver is up $0.42 to $21.04 and copper is up $0.08 at $3.56 a pound.
The price of oil is down $0.26 at US$74.71 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
