The Australian share market looks set to open flat based on ASX futures, while Wall Street delivered strong leads.
The Nasdaq etched another record high for the second day in a row with Apple shares soaring to a fresh spike (The Nasdaq composite hit an intraday record of 6,102). It comes as Apple is set to report its second quarter earnings.
The Dow Jones rose about 35 points with 3M and Visa adding the most gains, while the S&P 500 hovered around the flat line for the most of the session with information technology, industrials and health care shining.
Meantime, gold has fallen to a three-week low, bringing the losses this week in the precious metal to more than 1%.
US economic newsUS Domestic Vehicles sales have dropped in April, a sign that the boom in auto sales is losing steam, after the American auto industry hit record sales last year. Autodata says the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales, fell to 16.88 million units for April, below the expected 17.2 million units per annum.
Local economic news We can expect AIG to release the performance of the services sector for April, with the space already clocking along at a healthy level.
Markets Wall Street closed higher on Tuesday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2 per cent to close at 20,950, the S&P 500 added 0.1 per cent to close at 2,391 and the NASDAQ lifted 0.1 per cent to close at 6,095.
European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE rose 0.6 per cent, Paris added 0.7 per cent and Frankfurt gained 0.6 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.3 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.4 per cent.
And back home, the Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 6 points down to finish at 5,950. On the futures market the SPI is 4 points lower.
Company newsCentral Petroleum Limited
(ASX:CTP) has announced Santos Limited
(ASX:STO) has increased its interest in two of its licenses. The oil and gas explorer and producer’s joint venture partner, Santos, exercised an option to acquire a 50% participating interest in two licenses in the Southern Amadeus Basis in Central Australia. As part of the option, Santos will also become an operator of the two licenses (EPA (111) and EP(A) 124). Central Petroleum will retain 50% of the participating interest in the two EP(A)s. Shares in Central Petroleum Limited
(ASX:CTP) last traded 1% higher at 20.2 cents.
Currencies The Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying 75.35 cents, 58.30 Pence Sterling, 84.40 Yen and 68.96 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has added 90 cents to $US1,258 an ounce.
Silver is steady to $US16.84 an ounce.
Oil has lost 70 cents to $US48.08 a barrel.
