The Australian Share market is tipped to open slightly higher based on ASX futures, which is out of sync with Wall Street’s mostly flat close on Friday. The S&P500 and the tech heavy Nasdaq both closed pretty much flat, while the Dow Jones fell over 6 points as investors weighed through a mixed US jobs report and a US airstrike in Syria.
Goldman Sachs was one the biggest fallers on the Dow, while consumer staples lead the advancers on the S&P500, while utlilies lagged.
Meantime Oil, has taken the cake as a stand out performer after it traded near a one-month high, jumping 1.04% on Friday, after the United States fired missiles at a Syrian government airbase. Gold also raised the bar and hit a five-month high.
US economic newsUS created only 98,000 Nonfarm payroll jobs in March, versus the 180,000 expected.
Meantime, the unemployment rate fell to a 10-year low of 4.5%
Local economic news due out this week:- On Monday, the ABS will report the housing finance number for February, with expectations that we will see a 0.7% fall in the number of loans.
- On Tuesday, NAB will release its business survey for March. In February, conditions eased from their 9-year high.
- Come Wednesday, we will see a suite of data from the ABS including, lending finance for February, tourist arrivals for March, consumer confidence for April and credit and debit card lending for February.
- On Thursday, the ABS will report the all important employment data for March, with expectations we will see a 25,000 increase in jobs.
- And finally, the RBA will release its Financial Stability Review, which is a bi-annual report from that which discusses the conditions of the financial system.
Markets Wall Street closed flat on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed flat at 20,656, the S&P 500 lost 0.1 per cent to close at 2,356 and the NASDAQ closed flat at 5,878.
European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE rose 0.6 per cent, Paris gained 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt fell 0.1 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed flat, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.2 per cent.
And back home, the Australian share market closed higher on Friday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 6 points up to finish at 5,862. Over the week it has fallen by 2 points. On the futures market the SPI is 14 points up.
Company newsAriadne Australia Limited
(ASX:ARA) has entered into an agreement to buy the freehold interest in a 11-story commercial office tower in Brisbane, Queensland. The investment company inked the deal with its joint venture to buy the freehold interest in 40 Tank Street, Brisbane, for a net adjusted price of $56.1million. Ariadne says the JV’s acquisition will provide value for shareholders. Settlement is expected to occur on 31 May 2017. Shares in Ariadne Australia Limited
(ASX:ARA) last traded at flat at 76 cents.
Ex-dividends 5 companies are going ex-dividend today:
Brickworks Limited
(ASX:BKW) is paying 17 cents fully franked and Gowing Brothers Limited
(ASX:GOW) is paying 6 cents fully franked.
Currencies The Australian Dollar at 7:15AM was buying 74.96 cents, 60.54 Pence Sterling, 83.23 Yen and 70.80 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has gained $2.50 to $US1,256 an ounce.
Silver has fallen 26 cents to US$17.99
Oil has gained $0.62 to $US52.29 a barrel.
