Outlook: Aus shares may be in for flat to weaker start

Market Reports

The Australian share market looks like it may be in for a flat to weaker start this morning after stocks on Wall St closed a lacklustre session mixed overnight. Fasll in gold and copper prices are likely to weigh on local miners.

The Dow slipped into the red, the S&P500 and Nasdaq steady at the end of the day’s trade as investors showed caution ahead of key monthly jobs data due out on Friday.

In economic news: The US Labor Department reported that jobless claims dropped by 11,000 last week to 445,000. Economists expected to see a figure around 455,000.

And same store retail sales rose 2.8% in September according to Thomson Reuters who tracks sales for a group of 28 national chains. Forecasts were for a rise of 2.1% in the month.

Turning to the figures now, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 19 points lower at 10,949. The S&P 500 Index closed 2 points weaker at 1,158 and the NASDAQ added 3 to 2,384.

European stocks were also mixed: London’s FTSE fell 19 points, Paris rose 6 and Frankfurt also gained 6. Asian markets were flat: Hong Kong Hang Seng up 4 points on Thursday, Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 7 and China was closed.

The Australian share market finished flat on Thursday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 5 higher at 4,691 and on the futures market the SPI200 is down 17 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 8:35AM was buying 98.22 US cents, 61.88 Pence Sterling, 80.9 Yen and 70.56 Euro cents.

In company news: Shares in Cape Lambert Resources Ltd (ASX:CFE) rose 9.21% to $0.415 on Thursday. The company’s shares rallied yesterday after announcing an on market share buy-back. As part of a capital management program, Cape Lambert says it intends to buy-back up to 10 per cent of its ordinary shares. The miner also announced plans to issue around eight million unlisted options at an exercise price of $0.45 on or before September 30, 2011 to reward and retain directors, key staff and consultants. Cape Lambert reported earnings of $72.24 million for the year to June 30, 2010.

Shares in AWB Ltd (ASX:AWB) fell 0.34% to $1.49 yesterday. An independent expert has found a takeover bid by Canada’s Agrium is in the best interests of shareholders. An independent expert has deemed the $1.50 a share offer for the grains exporter, as fair and reasonable. Last week Agrium’s $1.2 billion offer for AWB received Australian foreign investment review board approval. AWB shareholders will vote on the deal at a meeting on November 16, 2010. AWB posted a loss of $63.51 million for the half year to March 31, 2010.

To ex-dividends: Among those companies going ex-dividend today are Cromwell with a 1.75 cent unfranked dividend, and Matrix Composites and Engineering with a 2 cent fully franked dividend. And among those coming up on Monday are Coffey International and Cedar Woods Properties.

To commodities: and the price of gold is down US$12.70 to US $1335 an ounce for the December contract on Comex, silver is down US$0.46 to $22.58 and copper is down $0.07 at $3.68 a pound.

The price of oil is down $1.56 to US$81.67 a barrel for November light crude in New York.


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