The Dow Jones has done it. The index closed above the 22,000 point for the first time, after Apple shares climbed about 5 per cent after its quarterly results smashed through expectations. The tech giant, reported its EPS came in at US$1.67 on revenue of US$45.4 billion. If you looked at Apple’s share price chart over the last two days, and you’ll see its massive vertical spike.
What’s interesting to note is it’s taken the Dow Jones about 100 trading days to surge from 21,000 to the 22,000 milestone with shares in Boeing having the biggest impact on the rally.
As for the other two major US indices for Wednesday’s close, not much life at the close with the S&P 500 rising over 1 point and the tech heavy Nasdaq closing flat.
As for the other things to follow, Oil has gained almost 1 per cent while the Copper price has seen some improvement.
With all of that in consideration our local bourse is set for a modest rise at the open.
To US economic newsUS companies added 178,000 jobs in July, less than the 185,000 expected. The ADP Research Institute says it also follows June’s revised rise of 191,000 jobs. The march ahead in jobs last month came from a surge in service-related occupations, despite manufacturing jobs falling.
Local economic news out todayThe ABS will report the international trade date for June, with figures on exports and imports. Some analysts are expecting the broader current account surplus in the June quarter to hit a record, for the first time in 40 years. That date is due at 11.30am.
MarketsWall Street closed mostly in the black: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.24 per cent to close at 22,016, the S&P 500 added 0.05 per cent to close at 2,478 and the NASDAQ closed flat at 6,363.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE fell 0.2 per cent, Paris lost 0.4 per cent and Frankfurt slipped 0.6 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 0.5 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.2 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.2 per cent.
And back home, the Australian share market closed in the red on Wednesday: At the closing bell, The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 28 points lower or 0.5 per cent down for the day at 5,744.
On the futures market the SPI is 11 points up.
Company newsAustralian Pharmaceuticals Industries
(ASX:API) has revised its full year 2017 net profit after tax guidance to be 5 per cent up on FY16, on the back of a further decline in consumer sentiment. The health and beauty business, which owns Priceline and Soul Pattinson Chemist, says despite maintaining market share, retail conditions in FY17 were weaker than expected. API says its pharmacy business is on track to meet expectations for the year, while its reported net debt will be positive before December 2017. The firm also says overall like-for-like sales weakened as customers were spending less per basket and on lower value items. Shares in Australian Pharmaceuticals Industries
(ASX:API) last traded 0.57 per cent higher yesterday to $1.76.
To ex-dividendsOne company is going ex-dividend today: Grays Ecommerce
(ASX:GEG) is paying 5.67 cent fully franked.
Reporting seasonWe can watch out for Downer EDI
(ASX:DOW), Suncorp
(ASX:SUN) and Seven West Media
(ASX:SWM) which are set to report financial results today.
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:30am was buying 79.67 US cents, 60.26 Pence Sterling, 88.20 Yen and 67.20 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has lost $6.80 to $US1,273 an ounce.
Silver has fallen by $0.19 to $US16.57 an ounce.
And Oil has gained $0.45 to $US49.61 a barrel.
