Apple takes a boxing day hit: Aus shares to open higher

Market Reports

by Jessica Ellerm

Despite negative leads from US markets, the Australian share market looks set to open higher thanks to a sharp surge in the price of oil. Apple shares took a hit on boxing day, closing 2.5 per cent lower and dragging Wall St lower. Rumours out of Taiwan suggest the tech giant will cut its sales forecast in the first quarter by up to 40 per cent.

On the commodities front, oil jumped 2.6 per cent on Tuesday after an explosion at a Libyan oil pipeline.

US economic news

Fresh data out this morning from Standard & Poor’s showed US home prices rose 6.4 per cent year on year in October. It was a mixed bag on the manufacturing front however. The Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index dropped 10 points to 20 in December, while the Dallas Fed Manufacturing index did the reverse, jumping just over 10 points in the same month, to 29.7.

Markets

Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.03 per cent to close at 24,746, the S&P 500 fell 0.11 per cent to close at 2,681 and the NASDAQ slid 0.34 per cent to close at 6,936.

European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE was down 0.15 per cent, Paris fell 0.39 per cent and Frankfurt dropped 0.28 per cent.

Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 0.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.72 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.78 per cent.

The Australian share market closed higher on Friday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 9 points up to finish at 6,070.

On the futures market the SPI is 11 points up.

Company news

AFT Pharmaceuticals (ASX:AFP) has announced its painkiller Maxigesic is now licensed in its first North American market, Mexico. The new market takes the number of countries the drug is now licensed in to 125. The company anticipates sales will commence within the FY19 time period.Shares in AFT Pharmaceuticals (ASX:AFP) last traded on the 4th of December at $1.96

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 8:30AM was buying $US77.28 cents, 57.79 Pence Sterling, 87.47 Yen and 65.16 Euro cents.

Commodities

Gold has gained $9.30 to $US1,288 an ounce.
Silver has fallen $0.18 to $US16.62 an ounce.
Oil has jumped $1.26 to $US59.73 a barrel.

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin has gained 16.08 per cent in the last 24 hours to $16,280
Ethereum gained about 0.16 per cent to $769
And Litecoin has added about 4.7 per cent to $287
 

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