The Australian share market looks to be in for a positive start, Wall St closing stronger as the S&P 500 advanced to a new two-year intraday high, as US investors welcomed moves to extend tax cuts. Yesterday Aussie shares also lifted to the highest level in almost a month, following the RBA’s decision to keep rates steady at 4.75 per cent.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed 3 points lower to 11,359. S&P500 gained 1 point to hit 1,224 and the NASDAQ rose 4 points to 2,598.
European stocks were higher: London’s FTSE is up 38 points, Paris is up 61 point and Frankfurt is up 48.
To Asian markets, stocks were mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 190, Tokyo’s Nikkei was down 26 points and China’s Shanghai Composite is up 19 points.
The Australian share market finished stronger on Tuesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index advanced 38 points to close at 4,727 and on the futures market the SPI is up 2 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 98.41 US cents, 62.43 Pence Sterling, 82.17 Yen and 74.2 Euro cents.
Economic news: Due out today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics housing finance data for October.
Company news: Shares in Fairfax Media Ltd (ASX:FXJ) rose 2.48 per cent to close at $1.45 on Tuesday. The country’s wealthiest woman, Gina Rinehart has added to her media holdings by splashing $50 million for a stake in Fairfax Media. Fairfax says market sources have confirmed that Ms Rinehart will acquire a 1.5 per cent stake in the company. Just this Monday, CEO Brian McCarthy announced a surprise exit from the company, and a search is currently underway for a new chief. Fairfax Media booked a turnaround profit of $282.37 million in the 2010 financial year.
Yesterday shares in Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX:TLS) eased 0.36 per cent to close at $2.79. Telstra has apologised for an e-mail blunder that saw the telco accidently disclose the personal information of 570 customers. BusinessDay says it has acquired a copy of the email and spreadsheet which shared the personal details of one of the customers, and reports that Telstra has claimed the mistake was an oversight. Last month Telstra was also forced to apologise when a problem in its Tribe service gave some customers access to other users social media platforms. Telstra’s net profit dropped from $4.08 billion last year to $3.94 billion in fiscal 2010.
Ex-dividends: The two companies going ex-dividend today are Milton Corporation with a 37 cent fully franked dividend and Planet Platinum with a 3.98 cent fully franked dividend. Coming up on Thursday is Metcash with an 11 cent fully franked dividend.
To commodities: Gold is down $7.10 to $US1,409 an ounce for the February contract on Comex, silver is up $0.044 to $29.78 and copper is up $0.041 to $4.05 a pound. Oil is down $0.69 at $88.69 for January light crude in New York.
