The Australian share market is tipped for flat start to the week, despite Wall Street slightly rebounding from its second worst week of the year.
The tech stocks shone brightly and led the sectors higher, with the Nasdaq outperforming the other two US major indices.
Meantime, on the commodity front oil prices posted thier second week of losses, settling around US$48 a barrel. And with the acceleration of North Korea tensions, European and Asian markets have closed lower and that pushed the gold price higher.
To US economic newsAmerican consumer prices rose 0.1 per cent in July, missing the expected 0.2 per cent lift expected. That rose the year-on year-increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to 1.7 per cent, up from June's per cent annualised 1.6 per cent rate. It comes as consumer prices excluding food and energy, gained 0.1 per cent for the fourth straight month. Those gains increased CPI by exactly the same amount for three months in a row.
Local economic news Kicking off the week today, the RBA will report the Credit & debit card lending for July.
On Tuesday, we can expect the RBA to release board minutes from August meeting.
Also on Tuesday, ABS will reveal the new vehicle sales for July.
Mid week on Wednesday the ABS will announce the Wage price index for the June quarter.
And finally, closing out the economic week, the body will reveal the all important unemployment and employment figures for August.
MarketsWall Street closed higher on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.07 per cent to close at 21,858, the S&P 500 added 0.13 per cent to close at 2,441 and the NASDAQ rose 0.64 per cent to close at 6,257
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE fell 1.1 per cent, Paris lost 1.1 per cent and Frankfurt closed pretty much.
Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 2.04 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite shed 1.6 per cent.
And back home, the Australian share market closed lower on Friday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 68 points down to finish at 5,693 or 1.1 per cent lower for the day.
Over the week the index lost 27 points.
On the futures market the SPI is 3 points down.
Company newsCIMIC Group
(ASX:CIM)’s CPB Contractors, have won a design and construction contract for the Christchurch Convention and Exhibition Centre in New Zealand. The contract will generate about NZ$240 million in revenue for the company. The international contracting, construction and mining company says the project will be a world-class piece of infrastructure for Christchurch, which will benefit the local workforce and community at large. On completion, the Christchurch Convention and Exhibition Centre will have the capacity to host up to 2000 delegates for a variety of national and international events. Construction is expected to start in October this year and will be completed by early 2020. Shares in CIMIC Group
(ASX:CIM) last traded 0.59 per cent lower on Friday o $42.14.
Reporting season.We can watch out for Ansell
(ASX:ANN), Aurizon Holding
(ASX:AZJ), Bendigo and Adelaide Bank
(ASX:BEN) and JB Hi-Fi
(ASX:JBH) and Newcrest Mining
(ASX:NCM) which are set to report financial results today.
Ex-dividendsOne company is going ex-dividend today: K2 Asset Management Holdings
(ASX:KAM) is paying 0.25 fully franked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:45AM was buying 78.99 US cents, 60.73 Pence Sterling, 86.16 Yen and 66.83 Euro cents.
CommoditiesGold has gained $3.90 to $US1,294 an ounce.
Silver is steady at $US17.07 an ounce.
Oil has gained $0.22 to $US48.97 a barrel.
