The Australian share market is set for a lift today on the back of Wall Street seeing its third day of gains and the iron ore spot and futures prices rising. The tech heavy Nasdaq gained the most steam with Amazon and Nvidia jumping 2 per cent. We also saw Goldman Sachs and 3M adding the most gains on the Dow Jones.
Meantime the oil price has fallen further with supply forecasts weighing on the commodity, which will see energy stocks eyed closely today.
Taking all of this into equation, the ASX futures are pointing to a 14 point rise.
Yesterday the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 35 points up to 5856.
Local economic news We can expect consumer confidence data for February.
MarketsWall Street closed up yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2 per cent to close at 24640, the S&P 500 added 0.3 per cent to close at 2663 and the NASDAQ gained 0.5 per cent to close at 7014.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE fell 0.1 per cent, Paris lost X 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.7 per cent lower.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 0.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.3 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite closed almost 1 per cent higher.
Company news New Zealand electricity company Genesis Energy
(ASX:GNE) has announced a 24 per cent drop in net profits to $28 million in the first half of the 2018 financial year, compared with the same time last year. In good news for the company earnings (EBITDAF) rose 28 per cent to $200 million and dividends were up 1 per cent, to 8.3 cents per share. Shares in Genesis Energy
(ASX:GNE) closeD 0.9 per cent higher at $2.22
Synlait Milk
(ASX:SM1) has renewed its infant formula supply arrangements with Chinese company Bright Dairy. The five-year supply agreement for packaged formula will underpin its application to register the Pure Canterbury brand with the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), even though the brand has been in China since 2011. Shares in Synlait Milk
(ASX:SM1) closed UP 0.5 Per cent higher/ at $6.12.
Reporting seasonWe can watch out for 11 companies reporting financial results today, including CSL
(ASX:CSL), Dexus (ASX: DXS), Woodside Petroleum
(ASX:WPL), Goodman Group (ASX GMG), Insurance Australia Group
(ASX:IAG), Computershare
(ASX:CPU), Ridley Corp
(ASX:RIC), Orora
(ASX:ORA), Domino’s Pizza Enterprises
(ASX:DMP), Vicinity Centres
(ASX:VCX) and Villa World
(ASX:VLW).
Ex-dividends Two companies are going ex-dividend today, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA) is paying $2.00 fully franked and Milton Corporation
(ASX:MLT) is paying 8.8 cents fully franked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 8:50AM was buying 78.6 UScents, 56.58 Pence Sterling, 84.73 Yen and 63.64 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has gained $5.10 to $US1,331.50 an ounce.
Silver has lost $0.04 to $US16.54 an ounce.
Oil has lost $0.30 to $US58.78 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading mixed: Bitcoin has fallen 1.90 per cent to $8692, Tether has gained about 0.3 per cent to $1 and Ethereum has fallen about 2.5 per cent to $848.
