The Australian share market looks like it may be in for a flat to slightly higher start this morning after Wall St eked out a gain overnight.
US stocks managed to squeeze out a gain on Thursday as investors stepped back to consider another round of strong earnings results and speculation that the Fed’s next bout of quantitative easing may not be as large as first thought.
In economic news out of the US: The Government’s weekly report on jobless claims showed 452,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, less than expected.
The Conference Board’s leading economic indicators increased 0.3 per cent in September, following a 0.1 per cent increase in August.
The Philadelphia Fed Index, a read on manufacturing in the region, rose to a read of 1 in October from minus 0.7 in September, economists expected a read of 1.4.
Turning to the figures, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 39 points higher at 11,147. The S&P 500 Index is up 2 at 1,180 and the NASDAQ added 2 to close at 2,460.
European stocks were higher: London’s FTSE gained 29 points, Paris up 50 and Frankfurt advanced 86.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong Hang Seng up 93 yesterday, Tokyo’s Nikkei down 5 and China lost 20.
Taking a look at the local market. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 2 points lower at 4,623 yesterday, and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 4 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 8:50AM was buying 97.83 US cents, 62.28 Pence Sterling, 79.56 Yen and 70.27 Euro cents.
In local economic news: The ABS is to release international trade price indices for September.
In company news: Shares in Mineral Deposits Ltd (ASX:MDL) rose 2.33% to $1.10 yesterday. The company is looking to raise a minimum $100 million through an IPO of its Sabodala gold mine in Senegal in November. The company is spinning its Sabodala mine off in an attempt to realise greater value for the asset. CFO Rick Sharp told The Australian Financial Review, that the company is targeting upwards of $100 million for the IPO, with funds to go towards repaying debt and expanding the gold mine in Senegal. Mineral Deposits reported a loss of $32.35 million for the year to June 30, 2010.
Shares in Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) gained 2.56% to $6.80 on Thursday. The mineral sands company says it will continue to ration Zircon volumes across customers through the fourth quarter as demand remains higher than the company’s ability to supply. Iluka is the world’s largest provider of Zircon and has been unable to meet soaring demand for the product since the second quarter. As previously indicated, Iluka increased the price of Zircon, which took effect from this month. Iluka Resources posted a loss of $6.6 million for the half year to June 30, 2010.
To ex-dividends: While there are no companies going ex-dividend today, coming up on Monday is Austereo and Halcygen Pharmaceuticals.
To commodities: and the price of gold is down US$18.60 to US$1325 an ounce for the December contract on Comex, silver is down 73 cents to $23.14 and copper is 1 cent lower at $3.78 a pound.
The price of oil is down $1.98 to US$80.56 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
