The Australian share market is tipped to open higher today, while Wall St finished steady on Friday, US investors cautious ahead of an expected announcement on economic stimulus due from the Federal Reserve this Wednesday and the upcoming US midterm elections.
In US economic news: On Friday the Commerce Department showed gross domestic product lifted as expected in the third quarter at a two per cent annual rate, while not enough to lower hopes of more quantitative easing from the Fed. Investors will also be closely looking at the Government’s October jobs report due this Friday.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 5 points higher at 11,118. The S&P 500 Index closed down half a point at 1,183 and the NASDAQ closed steady at 2,507.
European stocks were steady: London’s FTSE down 3 points, Paris is down 1 and Frankfurt up 6.
To Asian markets, stocks were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 115 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei was down 164 points and China’s Shanghai Composite down 14.
The Australian share market finished lower on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 23 lower to 4,662 and on the futures market the SPI200 is up 17 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 7:40AM was buying 98.54 US cents, 61.41 Pence Sterling, 79.17 Yen and 70.58 Euro cents.
In local economic news: Due out today the Reserve Bank of Australia’s index of commodity prices for October, the Australian Bureau of Statistics house prices indexes for eight capital cities in September and the TD Securities-Melbourne Institute inflation gauge for October.
In company news: BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) closed 0.17% softer at $41.92 on Friday. BHP is ramping up its base metals division, the global miner telling BusinessDay that it will invest $US350 million into copper exploration over the next four to five years. The investment could triple BHP’s copper base, with the miner advising growth will be driven by several prospects at its flagship Escondida copper mine in Chile. In other BHP news, there is speculation this morning that the miner is getting ready to boost its $40 billion hostile bid for PotashCorp, following regulatory approval expected this week from the Canadian government. BHP Billiton reported a net profit of $15.26 billion in the 2010 financial year.
Shares in Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX:TLS) closed 1.48% lower on Friday at $2.67. Australia’s largest telecommunication company has priced its National Broadband Network deal at around $16 billion, well above the more widely used figure of $11 billion. According to The Australian the valuation was suggested in the telco’s submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Telstra is currently negotiating with the regulator how much it could charge rivals using its network, in a deal that would see Telstra become the National Broadband Network’s largest customer. Telstra posted a $3.94 billion profit in fiscal 2010.
To commodities: and the price of gold is up US$15.10 to US $1357 an ounce for the December contract on Comex, silver is up US$0.69 to $24.56 and copper is down $0.05 at $3.73 a pound. The price of oil is down $0.75 to US$81.43 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
