Aussie shares look to be in for a slightly lower start, following Wall St falling on technology giant, Cisco System’s weak outlook which pulled tech stocks down. And, European debt concerns continued to weigh on markets.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 74 points lower at 11,283. The S&P 500 Index closed 5 points weaker at 1,214 and the NASDAQ fell 23 points to close at 2,556.
European stocks were mixed: London’s FTSE down 2 points, Paris is down 21 and Frankfurt up 4.
To Asian markets, stocks were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 200 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei was up 31 points and China’s Shanghai Composite up 32.
The Australian share market finished higher on Thursday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 29 points stronger to 4,729 and on the futures market the SPI200 is 8 points lower. Turning to currencies: At 8:40am this morning the Aussie is buying 99.74 US cents, 61.88 Pence Sterling, 82.32 Yen and 73.02 Euro cents.
In local economic news: Due out today the Reserve Bank of Australia’s credit and debit card data for September.
In company news: Shares in Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) closed 0.98% higher at $48.55 on Thursday. Commonwealth Bank has come out in defense of its CEO Ralph Norris, the Australian Associated Press reporting that Mr Norris was misquoted over comments made on interest rate rises. According to AAP, following the bank’s decision to raise its standard variable interest rate last week Mr Norris was asked if he expected more home foreclosures as a result of the rake hike, and Mr Norris responded with the words “a few”. However, Commonwealth bank says these words were incorrectly taken out of context and published, which gave a completely untrue representation of Mr Norris’s position. The Commonwealth Bank earned a $5.68 billion profit in the 2010 fiscal year.
Yesterday Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX:RIO) shares closed 1.35% firmer at $87.36. Denise Goldsworthy, managing director of Rio Tinto's Dampier Salt Ltd, has been recognised with a national award. Yesterday Ms Goldsworthy was named Australian Business Woman of the Year at Telstra's 2010 awards. In her current role Ms Goldsworthy heads the world’s largest exporter of solar salt, delivering earnings of US$129 million in 2009. Rio Tinto posted a profit of over $7.3 billion in the first half of this year. To ex-dividends: Three companies are going ex-dividend today, they are Bank of Queensland with a 26 cent fully franked dividend, GEO Property Group with a 1.5 cent unfranked dividend and National Australian Bank with a 78 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities: The price of gold is up $US4.00 to $US1403 an ounce for the December contract on Comex, silver is up $US0.54 to $27.40 and copper is up $0.05 at $4.02 a pound. The price of oil is steady at $87.81 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
