The Australian share market is poised to open flat, after Wall Street closed mixed on Tuesday as investors sifted through President Donald Trump’s comments about Russia.
The tech heavy Nasdaq closed higher for the third day, while the S&P slipped from its intraday high after utilities weighted down the index.
Oil has settled lower as traders are awaiting US crude stockpile data. Gold has climbed for the fourth day and silver too is trading higher.
US economic newsUS housing starts have fallen for the second month, taking the construction of new homes to its lowest level in 5 months. Housing starts fell by 2.6 per cent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.172 million units. The rate was forecast to reach 1.26 million. The disappointing reading comes as March saw a 6.6 per cent decline.
Also in the US, industrial production rose 1 per cent in April beating forecasts it would rise by 0.4 per cent. It the fastest production growth the US has seen in three years (since March 2014). The surge was fueled by a strong recovery in factory and mine production.
Local economic news The ABS will report the Lending finance figures for March, which includes housing, personal, commercial and lease loans.
The ABS will also report the Wage price index for the March quarter. Wages grew by 1.9 per cent over the year to December, while growth for the March quarter is tipped to be 0.5 per cent.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed on Tuesday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed flat at 20,980, the S&P 500 lost 0.1 per cent to close at 2,401 and the NASDAQ gained 0.3 per cent to close at 6,170
European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE gained 0.9 per cent, Paris fell 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt was flat
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.7 per cent.
And back home, the Australian share market closed higher yesterday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 12 points higher or 0.2% higher to 5,851. On the futures market the SPI is 1 point higher.
Company newsMegaport
(ASX:MP1) has entered into a partnership with the Chinese tech giant, Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) which will provide enterprises with direct access to Alibaba’s cloud business. The software defined networking company’s subsidiary, Megaport (Singapore), inked the deal so its customers have direct, dedicated access to Alibaba Cloud’s services. Megaport says Alibaba’s customer will also be able to access Megaport’s global network in more than 20 major markets. Shares in Megaport
(ASX:MP1) last traded 1% higher to $2.03.
CurrenciesThe Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying 74.27 US cents, 57.54 Pence Sterling, 83.99 Yen and 67.02 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has gained $6.80 to $US1,237 an ounce.
Silver has added 24 cents to $US16.84 an ounce.
And Oil has fallen 60 cents to $US48.56 a barrel.
