Aussie shares may open higher today, the futures pointing to a positive start, despite negative leads from overseas with Wall St closing mixed overnight on news that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to deliver the aggressive economic stimulus investors were hoping for.
In US economic news: The Commerce Department showed new orders for manufactured durable goods in September rose 3.3% to $6.3 billion, higher than expected after dropping 1.3% the month before. The department also showed sales of newly built single-family homes lifted 6.6% in September to an annual rate of 307,000 units, also higher than expected.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 43 points down at 11,126. The S&P 500 Index is down 3 at 1,182 and the NASDAQ is up 6 at 2,503.
European stocks were lower: London’s FTSE down 61 points, Paris is down 37 and Frankfurt down 46.
Asian markets were mixed: Hong Kong Hang Seng down 437, Tokyo’s Nikkei was up 10 and China down 44.
The Australian share market finished lower on Wednesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 40 points lower to 4,648 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 13 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 97.29 US cents, 61.66 Pence Sterling, 79.52 Yen and 70.69 Euro cents.
In economic news: The Reserve Bank of Australia is due to release its annual report today.
To company news: Shares in Downer EDI (ASX:DOW) closed 0.03% higher at $5.05 on Wednesday. Downer EDI has scored a $190 million passenger rail contract to expand and upgrade Queensland Rail’s fleet of high speed passenger tilt trains that service the Cairns to Brisbane rail corridor. The engineering and infrastructure management company has been a partner with Queensland Rail for over three decades. Only last week Downer announced around $300 million of rail contract wins with Pacific National and Australian Rail Track Corporation. In fiscal 2010 Downer EDI recorded a net profit of just over $3 million.
Shares in Super Cheap Auto Group Ltd (ASX:SUL) closed 0.02% lower at $6.65 on Wednesday. Super Cheap Auto Group has delivered a 16.8 per cent increase in sales to $306.7 million for the 16 weeks ended on 23 October. Boating Camping Fishing sales rose 15 per cent, while Goldcross Cycles sales dropped 10.4 per cent in the period. Managing director Peter Birtles says it has been a strong start to the year, though the outlook for retail trading remains uncertain in the lead up to Christmas. In the 2010 financial year, Super Cheap Auto Group improved its profit by 18.4 per cent to $38.1 million.
To ex-dividends: There are four companies going ex-dividend, Adtrans Group with a 50 cent fully franked dividend, Australian Masters Corporate Bond Fund No1 with a $3.59 fully franked dividend, Australian Masters Corporate Bond Fund No2 with a $3.12 fully franked dividend and Ten Network Holdings with an 11 cent unfranked dividend. Coming up tomorrow is CTI Logistics, FFI Holdings and Harvey Norman.
To commodities: The price of gold is down US$16.00 to US $1322 an ounce for the December contract on Comex, silver is down US$0.43 to $23.40 and copper is down $0.09 at $3.78 a pound. The price of oil is down $0.61 to US$81.94 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
