The Australian market is set to open higher –in line with gains on Wall Street. ASX futures were up early this morning.
U.S. stocks advanced and 10-year Treasury yields pushed toward 3.1 percent as retailer results and solid economic data boosted confidence in the American economy. The small cap Russell 2000 index hit a record, as Macy's strong results helped the retail sector and Micron led gains in the technology sector. Macy's results come a day after strong April retail sales data showed consumer spending was picking up. Oil is up, gold has dropped and iron ore futures are pointing to a dip.
Local ecomonic newsApril's jobs data is pending, the summary results of the monthly Labour Force Survey.
Figures from around the globeWall Street closed higher yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3 per cent to close at 24,769, the S&P 500 closed 0.4 per cent higher at 2,722 and the NASDAQ added 0.6 per cent to close at 7398.
European markets closed higher yesterday: London’s FTSE ended 0.2 per cent higher, Paris rose 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt added 0.2 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower yesterday: Tokyo’s Nikkei closed 0.4% lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.7 per cent.
Taking all of this into equation, the ASX futures are pointing to a 11pts gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 9 points up to 6107.
Company news Tungsten Mining
(ASX:TGN) has agreed to accept oversubscriptions after their proposed placement to raise $47 million.
The placement will be made in two tranches. Shares will be issued at a price of 34 cents per fully paid ordinary shares. For every five new shares subscribed, applicants will receive one attaching option. The additional funds will allow the Company to accelerate concurrent work and to deploy additional resources. They also want to complete the recent agreement to acquire the Watershed Tungsten Project and to take advantage of other acquisition opportunities as they arise.
Shares in Tungsten Mining
(ASX:TGN) closed 0.65 per cent lower at 76.5c yesterday.
Ex-dividendsFour companies are going ex-dividend today:
Dicker Data
(ASX:DDR) is paying 4.4 cents fully franked.
Latern Hotel Group
(ASX:LTN) is 0.2 cents unfranked.
Westpac
(ASX:WBC) is 94 cents fully franked.
Z Energy
(ASX:ZEL) is 20.46 unfranked
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US75.18 cents, 55.65 Pence Sterling, 82.93 Yen and 63.66 Euro cents.
CommoditiesIron ore futures are pointing to a 0.3 per cent drop.
Gold has dropped 20c to $US1290 an ounce.
Silver has added 12c to $US16.39 an ounce.
Oil has gained 25c to $US71.62 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has lost 2.6 per cent to US$8317, Ethereum has fallen 2.3 per cent to US$697 and EOS has dropped 5.9 per cent to US$12.34.
