Following negative leads from Wall Street, the Australian share market looks set to open lower. Rumours Gary Cohn, Trump advisor and director of the National Economic Council was contemplating stepping down rattled US markets overnight.
The Dow suffered its biggest drop since mid-May, while the S&P was dragged down by the information technology sector. Reports in early this morning of terror attacks in Barcelona are likely to impact sentiment on local markets, with futures dropping in the wake of the news.
On the commodities front, both oil and gold made gains overnight.
US economic newsThe number of Americans filing for unemployment dropped by 12,000 in the past week, with total new claims at 232,000. Industrial production increased 0.2 percent in July over June’s data, coming in slightly below market expectations of a 0.3 percent pick up.
MarketsWall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.24 per cent to close at 21,751, the S&P 500 fell 1.54 per cent to close at 2,430 and the NASDAQ tumbled 1.94 per cent to close at 6,222.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE retreated 0.6 per cent, as did Paris, while Frankfurt slid 0.5 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 0.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.2 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.7 per cent.
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 6 points down to finish at 5,779. On the futures market the SPI is 51 points down.
Company newsTelstra
(ASX:TLS) and News Corp
(ASX:NWS) have announced they will combine forces to create a new premium sports and entertainment company. Foxtel and FOX SPORTS Australia will merge, with Fox SPORTS owner News Corp taking a majority stake. The transaction set to finalise in the first half of next year. Shares in Telstra
(ASX:TLS) traded 10.62 per cent down on Thursday, closing at $3.87.
Reporting seasonMineral Resources
(ASX:MIN), Mantra Group
(ASX:MTR) and My State
(ASX:MYS) are set to report today, closing out the third week of company reporting.
Ex-dividends4 companies are going ex-dividend today: Ansell Limited
(ASX:ANN) is paying 30.22 cents unfranked, Class Limited
(ASX:CL1) is paying 2 cents fully franked, Dicker Data
(ASX:DDR) is paying 4 cents fully franked and Ooh! Media Group
(ASX:OOH) will pay 4.5 cents, also fully franked.
CurrenciesThe Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $US78.87 cents, 61.29 Pence Sterling, 86.37 Yen and 67.28 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has gained $4.20 to $US1,294 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver has gained $0.08 to $US17.02 an ounce
Oil has gained $0.10 to $US47.07 a barrel for September light crude.
