The Australian share market is tipped to nudge slightly higher at the open, following a mixed close on Wall Street on Friday, after e-commerce giant, Amazon, announced it was buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.
As a result of the news in the US, Consumer Staples fell 1 per cent, leaving the S&P 500 to close pretty much flat. The Dow Jones claimed another record high, despite Wal-Mart shares tanking over 4 per cent.
American investors also digested weaker than expected economic data on Friday, with housing starts and consumer sentiment missing the mark.
For the full trading week though, the three major indices posted a mixed result. The S&P and the Dow edged higher over the five days, while the tech heavy Nasdaq slightly fell.
US economic news The Commerce Department reported housing starts fell for the third straight month, falling 5.5 per cent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.092 million units much less than the 1.215 million expected. The tumble follows a 2.7 per cent decline in April.
The University of Michigan’s Consumer sentiment Index fell to 94.5 in June, also much less than the 97.1 expected.
Local economic newsOn Monday Governor, Philip Lowe, will join a panel discussion at the 2017 Crawford Australian Leadership Forum in Canberra. There he is expected to make comments about our local economy.
Also on Monday the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases the May data on new vehicle sales.
On Tuesday the RBA board minutes will be released from June 6 meeting, with investors keeping their eyes out for comments on the job market, housing and The Federal Budget.
Also on Tuesday, the ABS will reveal March's residential property prices. Although somewhat dated, the data includes estimates of the number of homes and the average number of people per home.
Finally on Thursday, the ABS will reveal the Job market data for May, giving a usual update on the job market, plus an estimate on industry level employment. Industry breakdowns are provided by the ABS every quarter.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1 per cent to close at 21,384, the S&P 500 rose 0.03 per cent to close at 2,433 and the NASDAQ fell 0.2 per cent to close at 6,152.
European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE rose 0.6 per cent, Paris added 0.9 per cent and Frankfurt firmed 0.5 per cent higher.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.2 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.3 per cent.
And back home, the Australian share market closed higher on Friday: At the closing bell, The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 11 points higher or 0.2 per cent to finish at 5,774. Over the week the index gained 96 points. On the futures market the SPI is 9 points up.
Company newsDeep Yellow Limited
(ASX:DYL) has raised $15.1 million through an entitlement offer. The uranium exploration company plans to use the funds for its ongoing exploration and resource expansion program for its Namibian projects. Deep Yellow says will also put the proceeds towards the continued assessment of counter-cyclical acquisition opportunities, to build its asset base. Following the non-renounceable entitlement offer, the company has more than about 190 million shares, 62 million listed options, and 709,000 performance rights on issue. Shares in Deep Yellow Limited
(ASX:DYL) last traded at $0.28.
Currencies The Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying 76.26 US cents, 59.74 Pence Sterling, 84.58 Yen and 68.06 Euro cents.
CommoditiesGold has gained $1.90 to $US1,257 an ounce.
Silver has lost 5 cents to $US16.66 an ounce.
And Oil has gained 29 cents to $US44.97 a barrel.
