The Australian share market is tipped for a soft rise, following yesterday’s stellar trading session.
There are however no US leads to follow as Wall Street was closed for the 4 July holiday.
Closer to home though, Asian stocks have closed lower after North Korea launched a missile, with officials saying it may have landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
Further abroad, European markets also closed lower amid geopolitical concerns.
Meantime, gold edged higher but is near seven-week lows, while oil is steady.
Local economic newsDue out today from AIG is the Performance of Services Index for June, which is forecast to fall to a reading of 51.10 from 51.5 in May.
Markets Wall Street: closed for 4 July 2017 holiday.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE fell 0.3 per cent, Paris lost 0.4 per cent and Frankfurt slipped 0.3 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.5 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite slid 0.4 per cent.
And back home, the Australian share market had a stellar run on Tuesday: At the closing bell, The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 99 points higher or 1.7 per cent higher at 5,784.
On the futures market the SPI is 3 points up.
Company newsBHP Billiton
(ASX:BHP) has proposed its preliminary results announcement and dividend determination date as the 22 August 2017. The multinational mining giant plans to go ex-dividend on 7 September 2017 on the Australian, London and New York stock exchanges, with the payment data earmarked as 26 September 2017. The 2017 AGM of the BHP Billiton Plc company (that is registered in England and Wales) will hold its AGM in London on 19 October 2017 (12 noon London time), while the BHP Billiton Limited AGM will be in Melbourne on 16 November 2017 at 11.00am (Melbourne time). Shares in BHP Billiton
(ASX:BHP) last traded 2.28 per cent higher $23.76.
To ex-dividends One company is going ex-dividend today, Eildon Capital
(ASX:EDC) is paying 1.79 cents fully franked.
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:10AM was buying 76.07 US cents, 58.91 Pence Sterling, 86.19 Yen and 67.03 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has gained $3.80 to $US1,223 an ounce.
Silver has lost 4 cents to $US16.05 an ounce.
And Oil has gained 1 cent to $US47.08 a barrel.
