The Australian share market looks set for a flat start this morning with stocks on Wall St closing lower overnight but closing out a strong September.
Despite getting off to a good start US stocks were unable to hold onto gains closing weaker on Thursday. However this did not prevent the market from recording its best September in decades.
Some positive economic reports got Wall St off to a strong start at the open, but concerns about the eurozone made investors jittery.
In economic news out of the US overnight: The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell to 453,000 last week. Economists expected 457,000 claims.
The Commerce Department released its final read on gross domestic product in the second quarter, revising the result to a gain of 1.7 per cent from the previous read of 1.6 per cent.
Turning to the figures, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 47 points lower on Thursday at 10,788. The S&P 500 Index closed 4 points weaker at 1,141 and the NASDAQ is down 8 at 2,369.
European stocks were also lower: London’s FTSE down 21 points, Paris fell 22 and Frankfurt lost 18.
Asian markets were mixed on Thursday: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 21 points weaker, Tokyo’s Nikkei down 190 points and China’s Shanghai Composite was rose 45.
The Australian share market finished lower yesterday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 62 lower at 4,583 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 11 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:40AM was buying 96.67 US cents, 61.53 Pence Sterling, 80.72 Yen and 70.92 Euro cents.
In local economic news: The Australian Industry Group/Pricewaterhouse performance of manufacturing index for September is due out today.
In company news: Shares in global miner BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) fell 0.46% to $38.91 on Thursday. The mining giant says its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia has the potential to produce over 1.3 million tonnes of copper a year. This means Olympic Dam could rival the scale of the Pilbara region in Western Australia and the production from the world’s largest copper mine Escondida in Chile. According to a report in The Australian this morning, in slides from a presentation to analysts a graph of the planned Olympic Dam showed the mine plateauing at just below 1.4 million tonnes of annual copper output over the 50 year life of the mine. BHP Billiton earned profit of $15.26 billion in the year to June 30, 2010.
Shares in Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX:PDN) declined 0.11% to $3.59 yesterday. The company has expressed surprise and disappointment at the Northern Territory’s decision to not support a uranium mine at the company’s JV project at Angela Pamela south of Alice Springs. In December 2006 the NT Government invited interested mining companies to apply for an exploration licence for the Angela Pamela sites, Paladin and its joint venture partner Cameco were selected. Paladin says relying on encouragement and positive support from the Government it pursued the joint venture in good faith and the Government’s decision not to support the establishment of a mine has come as a surprise. Paladin says many millions of dollars have been spent on exploration and it will now consider its options in advance of any further discussions with the Northern Territory Government. Paladin Energy reported a loss of $63.12 million for the year to June 30, 2010.
To ex-dividends: Among those companies going ex-dividend today is ARB Corp with a 12 cent fully franked dividend, Nick Scali with a 4.5 cent fully franked dividend, Sims Metal Management with a 23 cent 74 per cent franked dividend, and Seven Group with an 18 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities: and the price of gold is down US$0.70 to US $1309 an ounce for the December contract on Comex, silver is down US$0.13 to $21.82 and copper is down $0.01 at $3.65 a pound.
The price of oil is up $2.11 to US$79.97 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
