Australian shares are set to open higher as all three US benchmarks rose over one per cent with tech leading the way. Twenty five of the Dow's 30 components were higher, Intel and Microsoft did well. Apple also rose as did Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook. Although Netflix saw a fall. The Nasdaq is up 13.3 per cent so far this year.
The S&P 500 Index closed at the highest level since February as China held off any immediate retalitation to President Donald Trump’s newest escalation of the trade war between the two countries. Oil and Gold are up and the Aussie dollar is up slightly.
US economic newsThe US Consumer Price Index rose by 2.9 per cent in June, compared to a year earlier. That’s the highest rate since 2012. Fuel prices rose by 0.2 per cent in June. driven by pricier dairy, cereal, fruit and vegetables.
Markets Wall Street closed higher yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.9 per cent to close at 24,925, the S&P 500 closed 0.9 per cent higher to close at 2,798 and the NASDAQ rose 1.4 per cent to close at 7824.
European markets closed higher yesterday: London’s FTSE added 0.8 per cent, Paris was up almost 1 per cent and Frankfurt rose 0.6 per cent.
Asian markets closed higher, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 1.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.6 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 2.2 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 23pts gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index adding 53 points to close at 6268.
Company news CIMIC Group’s
(ASX:CIM) global mining services provider, Thiess, will continue its long-term relationship with OZ Minerals under a new A$112 million contract. Under this five-year contract, Thiess will provide run of mine management, crusher feed and ore rehandling services for the mine Prominent Hill, near Coober Pedy, South Australia. Thiess will begin works in August 2018. Thiess first started works at the Prominent Hill copper/gold mine in 2006 providing open pit mining services. Shares in Cimic Group
(ASX:CIM) closed 0.38 per cent lower to $42.40 yesterday.
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US74.07 cents, 56.14 Pence Sterling, 83.36 Yen and 63.49 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to 0.4 per cent gain.
Gold has gained $3.30 to $US1248 an ounce.
Silver has added 16c to $US15.97 an ounce.
Oil was up 50c to $US69.36 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has lost 3.01 per cent to US$6,192, Ethereum has lost 2.52 per cent to US$429 and EOS has dropped almost 4 per cent to US$6.79.
