It appears there will be little change in the Australian share market when it opens this morning after narrow moves on Wall Street. Yesterday saw a better-than-expected trade balance and building approvals reports and that did result in the market closing higher. Major Australian miners rose yesterday, today iron ore has dropped. Meanwhile, US stocks rallied from a four-week low but still ended down for the second day straight. The rally was hampered by falling Treasury yields.
Investors are waiting on Friday’s US monthly jobs report for clues on the strength of the world’s largest economy.
Local economic newsThe Reserve Bank of Australia will release a Statement on Monetary Policy at 11.30am this morning.
Macquarie Group is scheduled to release its fiscal 2018 results this morning.
Figures from around the globeWall Street closed mixed yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.02 per cent to close at 23,930, the S&P 500 closed 0.2 per cent lower at 2,630 and the NASDAQ fell 0.2 per cent to close at 7088.
European markets closed lower yesterday: London’s FTSE lost 0.5 per cent, Paris fell 0.5 per cent and Frankfurt dropped 0.9 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei was closed, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.3 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.6 per cent.
Taking all of this into equation, the ASX futures are pointing to a 12 pts gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 48 points higher at 6098.
Company newsDow Jones indices has announced that Sirtex Medical Limited
(ASX:SRX) will be removed from the S&P/ASX 200.
The Australian medical company will be acquired by Varian Medical Systems in a $1. 6 billion deal.
The removal from the S&P/ASX 200 effective at the open of trading on May 11, 2018.
Sirtex will be replaced by IDP Education Limited
(ASX:IEL)Shares in Sirtex Medical
(ASX:SRX) closed 0.25% lower to $27.85 yesterday.
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US75.31 cents, 55.48 Pence Sterling, 82.23 Yen and 62.83 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to a 1.8 per cent drop.
Gold has gained $7.20 to $US1313 an ounce.
Silver has risen 7c ($0.07) to $US16.45 an ounce.
Oil has added $0.57 to $US68.50 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading mixed: Bitcoin has gained 5 per cent to US$9651, Ethereum gained 12 per cent to US$764 and EOS had dropped 5 per cent to US$17.99.
