The Australian share market is poised for a marginally low start after receiving weak leads from offshore trading overnight. Wall Street indices and commodities are general lower, as are the European markets. The European markets are lower after Moody’s warned it could downgrade Spain’s credit rating. The news dampened investor confidence despite Irish parliamentary approval of the EU-IMF rescue.
In US economic news: A survey by the Federal Reserve shows US factory output rose grew 0.3 per cent in November, signalling a fifth consecutive month of gains. In a separate report, the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index shows consumer prices increased by 0.1 per cent in November, slight below economists forecast of a 0.2 per cent rise. Due out tomorrow is a report on US housing starts which is expected to generate a lot of attention.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed 19 points lower to 11,457. S&P500 is down 6 points to close at 1,235 and the NASDAQ lost 11 points to 2,617.
European stocks were lower: London’s FTSE is down 9 points, Paris is down 23 and Frankfurt is down 11.
To Asian markets, stocks were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 456, Tokyo’s Nikkei down 7 points and China’s Shanghai Composite down 16 points.
The Australian share market finished flat on Wednesday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed flat at 4,768 and on the futures market the SPI was down 13 points. Turning to currencies and the Aussie Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 98.63 US cents, 63.46 Pence Sterling, 83.1 Yen and 74.64 Euro cents.
In economic news: Due out today is the Reserve Bank of Australia’s December quarter bulletin, the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ labour force data for November and international merchandise imports also for November.
Now to company news: Yesterday, shares in CSR Ltd (ASX:CSR) closed 4.11 per cent higher at $1.77.
CSR Ltd plans to return around $800 million to shareholders after finalising the sale of its Sucrogen business. CSR won final approval for its $1.75 billion sale of Sucrogen to Singapore’s Wilmar International on Wednesday, when authorities in New Zealand cleared the deal. The return of funds to shareholders will include a capital return and a special dividend, subject to shareholder approval.
For the half year ended 30 September 2010, CSR reported a net profit of $73 million.
On Wednesday shares in ANZ Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) closed 0.54 per cent lower at $23.82.ANZ bank, which is facing a significant class action over alleged fee gouging, has rejected an independent court-appointed expert to examine the operational costs behind its fees and charges. In the first of a series of class actions planned against Australian banks, law firm Maurice Blackburn claims ANZ charged its customers excessive fees since 2006. It is one of Australia’s largest class action, and involves around 30,000 people taking on the bank over fee gouging.
For the year ended 30 September 2010, ANZ reported a net profit of $4.5 billion.
To ex-dividends: There are no companies going ex-dividend today. And coming up tomorrow is NetComm and Singapore Telecommunications.
To commodities: Gold is down $18.10 to $US1,386 US an ounce for the February contract on Comex, silver is down $0.54 to $29.25 for March and copper is down $0.08 at $4.13 a pound.
Oil is up $0.34 at $88.62 for January light crude in New York.
