Australian shares look set to open slightly lower following a negative day for Wall Street. Stocks dropped on Tuesday after President Trump said he wasn’t satisfied with China-U.S trade talks. He also said a summit with North Korea may not happen. Auto stocks such as Ford and General Motors rose after China cut car tariffs.
Gold ended higher and Brent Crude is up by 0.4 per cent and iron ore has continued to slide.
MarketsWall Street closed lower yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.7 per cent to close at 24,834, the S&P 500 fell 0.3 per cent to close at 2,724 and the NASDAQ lost 0.2 per cent to close at 7378.
European markets closed mostly higher yesterday: London’s FTSE gained 0.2 per cent, Paris added 0.1 per cent and Frankfurt added 0.7 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed yesterday: Tokyo’s Nikkei closed 0.2 per cent lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was closed, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.02 per cent.
Taking all of this into equation, the ASX futures are pointing to a 5pts drop. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index losing 43 points or 0.7 per cent to close at 6042.
Company newsOil and gas company, Santos
(ASX:STO) has rejected the $14.4 billion takeover proposal from US equity firm Harbour Energy.
The Santos board says the offer of US$5.21 per share doesn’t represent the full value of the company and is not in the best interests of shareholders.
Shares in Santos
(ASX:STO) closed 1.23 per cent higher to $6.44 yesteday,
Meantime, Medical device company Sirtex has received a binding takeover offer from Chinese asset manager CDH Investments.
CDH launched a non-binding offer of $33.60 two weeks ago, which gave the company access to due diligence on Sirtex.
Yesterday CDH confirmed its bid which is higher than the rival offer of $28 from US company Varian Medical Systems.
Sirtex says it’s currently assessing both proposals and will provide a recommendation as to which proposal is in the best interests of shareholders.
Share in Sirtex Medical
(ASX:SRX) closed 0.03 per cent lower to $29.83 yesterday
Ex-dividendsA couple of companies are going ex-dividend today:
Cordish Dixon Pef II
(ASX:CD2) is paying 4 cents unfranked. While Whitefield Ltdis
(ASX:WHF) paying 9 cents fully franked.
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US75.77 cents, 56.40 Pence Sterling, 84.02 Yen and 64.33 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to a 0.5 per cent drop.
Gold has lost 50c to $US1296 an ounce.
Silver has added 4c to $US16.55 an ounce.
Oil has dropped 22c to $US72.13 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has fallen 3.5 per cent to US$8125, Ethereum has lost 5.7 per cent to US$658 and EOS has dropped 5.9 per cent to US$12.66.
