The Australian share market is expected to lift at the open as shares on Wall Street rallied strongly as investors returned from their Independence Day break. Tech did well. Facebook is up 3 per cent and Netflix, Alphabet, Apple and Amazon all closed higher. BHP did drop very slightly but Rio rose half a per cent. Commodities were quite stable overnight although oil dropped slightly as did the price of iron ore. By midnight tonight Washington time, Trump is set to impose tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods. Beijing says they will immediately put tariffs on US goods as soon as that happens.
MarketsWall Street closed higher yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.8 per cent to close at 24,357, the S&P 500 closed 0.9 per cent higher to close at 2,737 and the NASDAQ gained 1.1 per cent to close at 7586.
European markets closed higher yesterday: London’s FTSE gained 0.4 per cent, Paris added 0.9 per cent and Frankfurt was up 1.2 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower yesterday, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.2 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.9 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 30pts gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index adding 32 points to close at 6216.
Company newsAccomodation and vehicle company Fleetwood Corporation
(ASX:FWD) is currently looking for a new company secretary. Yanya O’Hara has resigned after seven years in the role. Andrew Wackett, who is Fleetwood’s Chief Financial Officer, has been appointed as interim Company Secretary. Shares in Fleetwood Corporation
(ASX:FWD) closed 0.45 per cent lower to $2.23 yesterday.
Ex-DividendsOne company is going ex-dividend today.
Metro Performance Glass
(ASX:MPP) is paying 3.478c unfranked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US73.87 cents, 55.90 Pence Sterling, 81.76 Yen and 63.21 Euro cents.
CommoditiesIron ore futures are pointing to 0.65% gain.
Gold has gained $5.30 to $US1259 an ounce.
Silver has added 5c to $US16.09 an ounce.
Oil was down $1.02 to $US73.12 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has dropped 2 per cent to US$6,572, Ethereum has lost 1.1 per cent to US$469 and EOS has fallen 2.9 per cent to US$8.79.
