The Australian market has reached the last week of trading for the financial year and Australian shares are poised to open higher today, bolstered by a surge in the price of oil which lifted Wall Street on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 119 points, with Chevron and Exxon Mobil among the best-performing stocks in the index. BHP and Rio Tinto have also pushed higher on the back of the rise in oil and that’s expected to boost our energy sector today.
The rise in oil prices came after OPEC and its allies agreed on a deal to increase oil production on Friday. The agreement came after a week of negotiations at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna. With output to lift by around 600- 800 thousand barrels a day, which is less than many analysts expected.
The Aussie dollar ended the week stronger against the US dollar rising from lows to end the week at around $74.40
Local economic newsOn Wednesday we can look out for data on engineering activity while on Thursday wealth figures for the March quarter are released. The figures include indicators such as household debt and wealth. Also on Thursday the latest data on job vacancies from the ABS which provides a snapshot of the overall job market. The Reserve Bank issues the May Financial Aggregates publication on Friday which details private sector credit or loans outstanding.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session 0.5 per cent higher to close at 24,581, the S&P 500 gained 0.2 per cent to close at 2,755 and the NASDAQ dropped 0.3 per cent to close at 7693.
European markets closed higher on Friday: London’s FTSE added 1.7 per cent, Paris gained 1.3 per cent and Frankfurt rose 0.5 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.2 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.5 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 13 pts gain. On Friday, the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index losing 7 points to close at 6225.
Company news Beach energy
(ASX:BPT) announced the appointment of Peter Kupniewski as Company Secretary after the market closed on Friday.
He will replace Sheree Ford who vacated the role on Friday.
Kupniewski brings 16 years of industry experience to the role working as a solicitor in private practice and in house for a major oil and gas company.
Shares in Beach Energy
(ASX:BPT) closed 3.7 per cent lower to $1.69 on Friday.
Meantime, embattled video and TV company Big Un has told shareholders that ASIC has issued it with a notice under the Corporations Act which requires the Company’s financial statements and reports for the half year ending December 2017 on or before 2 July.
The news comes after the company announced its wholly owned subsidiary Big Review TV had been placed into voluntary administration last month.
Big Un
(ASX:BIG) last traded at $2.22 on the 16th of February 2018.
Ex dividendsArdent Leisure Group (ASX: AAD) is paying 6.5 unfranked
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US74.42 cents, 56.13 Pence Sterling, 81.81 Yen and 63.81 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to $2.85 per cent gain.
Gold has added 20c to $US1271 an ounce.
Silver has risen 14c to $US16.54 an ounce.
Oil jumped $3.04 to $US68.58 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading mixed: Bitcoin has gained 0.8 per cent to US$6,206, Ethereum has dropped 2.9 per cent to US$461 and EOS has fallen 1 per cent to US$8.30.
