The Australian share market will open lower, following weak leads from US equities.
Wall Street was actually having a strong day, until the major index sunk into negative territory in the final hour of trade. That was due to the Federal Reserve releasing its March meeting minutes. In those minutes, the Fed said it could change its bond investment policy, and start unwinding its large $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year. The minutes showed the Fed’s concern that the US stock market may be overvalued.
Most sectors finished in the red, with healthcare and technology performing the worst. Also weighing on the US market, was House Speaker Paul Ryan, who publicly made comments that Donald Trump’s proposed tax reforms might take longer to accomplish compared to repealing Obamacare, which the Republicans failed to do last week.
US economic newsADP released its latest employment figures, with private sector payrolls rising by 263,000 last month. This result has beaten analysts’ expectations for US job growth.
The Institute for Supply Management has released its latest non-manufacturing purchasing managers index figures. In March, the PMI reading was 55.2%, which came below expectations, and is certainly lower than February’s result of 57.6%. These figures show there is continuing growth in the US non-manufacturing sector, but at a slower pace.
MarketsWall Street finished in the red this morning: The Dow Jones fell 0.2% to 20,648. The S&P 500 dropped 0.3% to 2,353 and the NASDAQ was down 0.6% to 5,864.
European markets finished mostly lower overnight: London’s FTSE lifted 0.1%, Paris was down 0.2%, and Frankfurt dropped 0.5%.
Asian markets finished higher yesterday: the Nikkei added 0.3%, the Hang Seng was up 0.6%, while the Shanghai Composite surged 1.5%.
Australia’s ASX 200 lifted 20 points (or 0.3%) to close at 5,876 yesterday.
This morning, on the Australian futures market the SPI is down 16 points.
Company newsIron ore shipments to China, from Western Australia’s Port Hedland terminal, lifted to 31.5 million tonnes according to yesterday’s port data. This is higher than the February shipment figure of 30.19 million. Port Hedland is the world’s largest iron ore export terminal, and used by big miners BHP Billiton
(ASX:BHP) and Fortescue Metals
(ASX:FMG). Yesterday, shares in BHP rose 3.47% to $24.75, and Fortescue shares were up 5.25% to $6.42.
Ex-dividends
CurrenciesThe Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $US75.71 cents, 60.68 Pence Sterling, 83.84 Yen and 71.01 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has dropped $0.70 to $US1,258 an ounce.
Silver is flat at $18.32 an ounce.
Oil is down $0.40 to $US50.82 a barrel.
