Continuing a positive streak: Aus shares to open higher

Market Reports

by Kathy Skantzos

The US markets had a slower but still positive day yesterday. The Dow closed lower but still had good intraday readings, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished on record highs, as optimism on the US economy remains. Tech stocks including Amazon, Alphabet and Netflix all finished higher, which has continued to lift the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Hershey shares gained after bidding to takeover Nestle’s US business.

Australia’s futures are up only slightly, so it is likely to be a steady start to the trading session. Iron ore us up 3 per cent, which should boost the minerals sector. Oil is up while gold has fallen.

US economic news

Consumer credit increased by US$27.95 billion in November 2017, above market expectations of US$19 billion and the largest monthly increase since December 2010.

Local economic news

Job advertisement numbers for December will be out, which increased 1.5 per cent in November, the same as the previous month.

Building permits for November will also be out, which unexpectedly rose 0.9 per cent the previous month.

Consumer confidence figures will also be released.

Figures

Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1 per cent to close at 25,283, the S&P 500 added 0.2 per cent to close at 2,748 and the NASDAQ gained 0.3 per cent to close at 7,157.

European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE lost 0.03 per cent, Paris gained 0.4 per cent and Frankfurt also gained 0.4 per cent.

Asian markets closed higher: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.9 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.3 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.5 per cent.

Back home, the Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 8 points up to finish at 6,130.

On the futures market the SPI is 8 points up.

Company news 

Viralytics, (ASX:VLA) a company developing immunotherapy treatments for a range of cancers, has announced it will be attending the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco this week. The conference will have over 8,000 delegates, and is a leading investment-focused conference in the healthcare space that draws major investment and pharmaceutical groups in the sector. Shares in Viralytics (ASX:VLA) closed 2.44 per cent lower yesterday to $0.80.

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 78.41 cents, 57.81 Pence Sterling, 88.67 Yen and 65.54 Euro cents.

Commodities

Gold has lost $1.20 to $US1,321 an ounce.
Silver has lost $0.13 to $US17.16 an ounce.
Oil has gained/$0.46 to $US61.90 a barrel.

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin has fallen 6.9 per cent in the last 24 hours to $15,262.
Ethereum gained 2.5 per cent to $1,156.
Litecoin has fallen 10.6 per cent to $257

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