Australian shares are set for a stronger open today, following a mixed session on Wall street. The tech heavy Nasdaq closed at a record high, led by gains in Amazon and Netflix. Apple shares also rose as the company announced new software and apps at its annual conference in California. Twitter announced it’s joining the S&P 500 which pushed the company’s stock price up by 5 per cent. The rest of the market struggled for gains however, with banking stocks among the worst performers.
We saw the gold price move a little bit higher towards the end of the session while the oil price is holding steady.
Meanwhile, the Aussie dollar is holding at around 76 US cents after jumping over 1 per cent on Monday.
Local economic newsToday the ABS releases the GDP figures for the March quarter. Analysts are expecting growth of around half a per cent based on strong household consumption and an increase in public works and infrastructure spending. This comes after the Reserve bank left rates on hold yesterday, overall the Aus economy is in pretty good shape.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1 per cent to close just below 24,800, the S&P 500 gained 0.1 per cent to close at 2,749 and the NASDAQ increased 0.4 per cent to close at 7638.
European markets closed mixed yesterday: London’s FTSE lost 0.7 per cent, Paris fell 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt was up 0.1 per cent.
Asian markets closed higher yesterday: Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.3 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.7 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 10pts gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index losing 31 points to close at 5995.
Company newsGold producer, Millennium Minerals
(ASX:MOY) has received a credit commitment of $17.5 million from Investec. The company says it’s now fully funded to execute the expansion of the processing plant at its Nulla-gine gold project in WA.
Millennium says the plant expansion will provide foundations for it to achieve its strategy of 100 000 ounces of gold production per annum.
Shares in Millennium Minerals
(ASX:MOY) closed flat at 18c yesterday.
Ex dividends ALS
(ASX:ALQ) in paying 9c, 40 per cent franked.
James Hardie Industries
(ASX:JHX) is paying 31.92c unfranked
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US76.18 cents, 56.88 Pence Sterling, 83.67 Yen and 65 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to a 2.2per cent gain.
Gold has gained $3.10 to $US1300 an ounce.
Silver has added 7c to $US16.50 an ounce.
Oil was up 78c to $US65.53 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has added 1.1 per cent to US$7609, Ethereum has gained 1.8 per cent to US$606 and EOS has risen 2.1 per cent to US$14.
