The Australian share market is set to open slightly higher today, Wall Street closed in the green on Tuesday after a speech from the Chinese President. President Xi Jinping alleviated trade war concerns, called for an upholding of the multilateral trade system. The Dow surged more than 400 points following the speech. Boeing and Caterpillar both rose over 3 per cent as tensions eased. Facebook jumped around 5 per cent following a speech by Mark Zuckerberg to the US Senate. Zuckerberg told the hearing the company is striving to correct issues with its platform.
On the commodities front – Oil rose more than 3 per cent breaking above $65 a barrel, gold was also up.
Local economic news Today we can expect the monthly consumer confidence figures from Westpac and the Melbourne Institute. In March consumer confidence edged slightly higher by 0.2 per cent to 103. Analysts are expecting confidence to remain at 103 this month. This keeps the index above 100, which indicates overall there are more optimists than pessimists. The average consumer confidence figure in Australia is around 101 based on the period between 1974 and 2018.
Also out today, the ABS issues the December quarter data on
building activity, which includes figures on housing starts. Home starts rose by just 0.7 per cent in the September quarter.
MarketsWall Street closed higher: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.8 per cent to close at 24,408, the S&P 500 added 1.7 per cent to close at 2,657 and the NASDAQ jumped over 2 per cent to close at 7094.
European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE gained 1.0 per cent, Paris added 0.8 per cent and Frankfurt climbed 1.1 per cent.
Asian markets closed up: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.5 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.7 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 1.7 per cent.
Taking all of this into equation, the ASX futures are pointing to a 2 points gain. Yesterday the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 48 points higher at 5857.
Company newsManufacturer of household chemicals, Pental
(ASX:PTL) has been ordered to pay $810 000 by the Federal Court. The penalty was imposed due to claims made by the company about the flushability and disintegration of its White King Bathroom wipes. Shares in Pental
(ASX:PTL) closed flat at $0.37 yesterday.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:35AM was buying US77.63 cents, 54.77 Pence Sterling, 83.26 Yen and 62.85 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has gained $3.00 to $US1343 an ounce.
Silver has added $0.04 to $US16.57 an ounce.
Oil has gained $2.04 to $US65.47 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has gained 2.1 per cent to US$6,850, Ethereum added 4.56 per cent to US$412.18 and Verge has jumped 19.4 per cent to US$0.087
