Following positive leads from US markets, the Australian share market looks set to open higher. Wall street posted solid gains off the back off a positive jobs report. The tech heavy NASDAQ advanced 1.8 per cent . Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google were among the best performing stocks.
On the commodities front, oil is up just over 3 per cent and gold is also up slightly.
US economic newsOn Friday the US employment report for February was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report showed over 300 000 jobs had been created in February. While the unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent, the lowest since December 2000. The stock market rallied after the better than expected results.
Taking all of this into consideration, the ASX futures are pointing to a 57 points gain. On Friday the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 20 points upto just under 6000.
Local economic newsWe can look out for the latest credit and debit card statistics today. Analysts expect the figure to be fairly flat. In December the average credit card balance was up just 0.1 per cent over the year. On Tuesday the National Australia Bank releases the February business survey. The business confidence index hit a 9 month high in January.
MarketsWall Street closed higher on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.8 per cent to close at 25,336, the S&P 500 added 1.7 per cent to close at 2,787 and the NASDAQ added 1.8 per cent to close at 7,561.
European markets closed mixed on Friday: London’s FTSE added 0.3 per cent, Paris gained 0.4 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.1 per cent lower.
Asian markets closed higher on Friday: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.5 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 1.1 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.6 per cent.
Company newsLiquefied Natural Gas
(ASX:LNG) has provided the company’s latest presentation at the Merrill Lynch US LNG Prospects Conference. The LNG project developer says they have secured all regulatory approvals for the Magnolia project located in the US. The project has a number of advantages including cost certainty, reliability and efficiency. The company says that their projects are best positioned to deliver at the front of next LNG wave. Shares in Liquefied Natural Gas closed 1.1 per cent lower to $0.45 on Friday.
Ex-dividendsSix companies are going ex-dividend today:
APN Outdoor Group
(ASX:APO) is paying 12 and a half cents fully franked, Caltex
(ASX:CTX) is paying 61 cents fully franked while Lovisa Holdings
(ASX:LOV) is paying 13 cents also fully franked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7.20AM was buying US78.47 cents, 56.67 Pence Sterling, 83.64 Yen and 63.71 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has added $2.30 to $US1324 an ounce.
Silver has gained $0.11 to $US16.61 an ounce.
Oil has risen $1.86 to $US61.92 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has risen almost 6 per cent to US$9603, Tether gained 0.4 per cent to US$1.01, and Ethereum has added about 3 per cent to US$728.
Company newsLiquified Natural Gas
(ASX:LNG) has provided the company’s latest presentation at the Merrill Lynch US LNG Prospects Conference. The LNG project developer says they have secured all regulatory approvals for the Magnolia project located in the US. The project has a number of advantages including cost certainty, reliability and efficiency. The company says that their projects are best positioned to deliver at the front of next LNG wave . Shares in Liquified Natural Gas
(ASX:LNG) Shares in Liquefied Natural Gas closed 1.1 per cent lower to $0.45 on Friday.
Ex-dividendsSix companies are going ex-dividend today:
APN Outdoor Group is paying 12 and a half cents fully franked, Caltex is paying 61 cents fully franked while Lovisa Holdings is paying 13 cents also fully franked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 8:20AM was buying US78.47 cents, 56.67 Pence Sterling, 83.64 Yen and 63.71 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has added $2.30 to $US1324 an ounce.
Silver has gained $0.11 to $US16.61 an ounce.
Oil has risen $1.86 to $US61.92 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has risen almost 6 per cent to US$9603, Tether gained 0.4 per cent to US$1.01, and Ethereum has added about 3 per cent to US$728.
