The Australian share market will open higher, according to ASX futures.
Wall Street is not providing a very strong lead as it finished mostly flat this morning. It seems investors are trading cautiously ahead of first quarter earnings results next week. They will also be paying close attention to the first meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week – and whether it goes well.
For US equities, the number of sectors in the green and red were roughly even. Energy stocks were the best performer, and received a boost from rising oil prices overnight. However, Financials stocks were the worst performers.
US economic newsThe Commerce Department has released figures which showed the US trade deficit narrowed in February to US$43.6 billion. This is 9.6% lower than January’s deficit of US$48.2 billion, and was driven by a rise in American exports, as well as a lower level of imported goods from China.
The Census Bureau reported that factory orders rose 1% in February, which was in line with analysts’ expectations.
Australian economic newsThe Reserve Bank yesterday kept the official cash rate on hold at the record low 1.50%. This caused the Aussie Dollar to weaken afterwards.
The Australian Industry Group will release April figures for its Performance of Services Index later today. It is an indicator of how well the manufacturing sector is performing.
MarketsWall Street finished mostly flat this morning: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% to 20,689. The S&P 500 was flat at 2,360 and the NASDAQ was flat at 5,899.
European markets finished higher overnight: London’s FTSE lifted 0.5%, Paris added 0.3%, and Frankfurt was up 0.2%.
Asian markets finished mixed yesterday: the Nikkei fell 0.9%, the Hang Seng was up 0.6%, while the Shanghai stock market was closed for a public holiday.
Australia’s ASX 200 fell 16 points (or 0.3%) to close at 5,857 yesterday.
This morning, on the Australian futures market the SPI is up 27 points.
Company newsConsumer credit company, Pioneer Credit Ltd
(ASX:PNC), has entered a 3-year strategic partnership with retail rewards business, Rewardle
(ASX:RXH). Pioneer has been granted exclusive rights to market personal lending products to Rewardle’s membership base of around 2.3 million people. Rewardle expects to earn $500,000 in revenue from this deal, and additional revenue depending on many of its members sign up to Pioneer’s consumer lending products. Pioneer was in a trading halt yesterday and lasted traded at $2.11.
Ex-dividendsEildon Capital Ltd
(ASX:EDC) will pay 1.38 cents, fully franked.
CurrenciesThe Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $US75.65 cents, 60.81 Pence Sterling, 83.76 Yen and 70.87 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has gained $1.40 to $US1,258 an ounce.
Silver is up 11 cents to $18.32 an ounce.
Oil is up $0.87 to $US51.13 a barrel.
