The Australian share market looks set to open higher despite losses on Wall Street following a mixed day in the US and a weakness in commodities. The Dow Jones narrowed its losses to 83 points after falling more than 250 points overnight. The tech heavy Nasdaq meanwhile rose .3 per cent. Energy stocks in the US were hit by a fall in oil prices – the biggest drop in three weeks.
Meanwhile trade angst was eased slightly in the US when White House officials suggested Canada and Mexico could be spared severe levies on aluminium and steel tariffs. It’s hoped Australia may be spared from tariffs too.
Taking all of this into equation, the ASX futures are pointing to a 22 points gain. Yesterday the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 60 points lower at 5902.
To the figures from around the globe: Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.3 per cent to close at 24,801, the S&P 500 fell 0.1 per cent to close at 2,727 and the NASDAQ gained 0.3 per cent to close at 7,397.
European markets London’s FTSE added 0.2 per cent, Paris gained 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt climbed 1.1 per cent.
Asian marketsTokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.03 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.6 per cent.
Company newsNew Zealand’s biggest poultry producer Tegel
(ASX:TGH) says full-year profit may drop due to inventory losses at their New Plymouth plant and additional agriculture and compliance costs. The Pylmouth plant was affected by ex-cylcone Gita, a water outage and in a separate incident an amonia leak. The resulting impact on the costs in the second half of Tegel’s financial year will be higher than expected. Underlying EBITDA, excluding one-time costs, is expected to be in a range of $70 million to $72 million in the 2018 financial year from $72 million in 2017. Net profit would be in a range of $25 million to $27 million, down from $31.7 million last year.
Share in Tegels dropped 3.06 per cent to $0.95
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 8:40AM was buying $US78.29 cents,
56.32 Pence Sterling,
83.04 Yen,
63.09 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has dropped $15 to $US1327 an ounce.
Silver has lost $0.27 to $US16.51 an ounce.
Oil has lost 77 cents to $US61.36 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has fallen almost 8 per cent to US$9960, Tether dropped about 0.5 per cent to US$0.99, and Ethereum has fallen about 9 per cent to US$744
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