Australian shares are set to lift at the open, bolstered by gains on Wall Street overnight. The tech-heavy Nasdaq hit a record high, as strong gains in Amazon and a rebound in Netflix shares led to a big comeback in tech stocks. Netflix closed just 5.2 per cent lower after falling as much as 14 per cent in after hours trade on Tuesday. Amazon rose 1.2 per cent after data showed strong sales growth for the first 12 hours of its annual sales day, Prime Day, compared to last year.
US government debt yields rose slightly after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell provided some confident remarks on the outlook of the US economy. Mr Powell did flag the potential risks of barriers to trade such as tariffs.
Crude oil futures steadied on Tuesday afternoon following a choppy trading session, as worries over supply disruptions eased.
In geopolitical news, President Trump has backflipped on his stance on Russian meddling in the Presidential election. Saying he accepted that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, before adding that other people may have done so too. Meantime, The European Union and Japan have signed one of the world’s biggest free trade deals. The deal is set to eliminate nearly all tariffs on products between Japan and the EU.
MarketsWall Street closed higher yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2 per cent to close at 25,120, the S&P 500 closed 0.4 per cent higher to close at 2,810 and the NASDAQ gained 0.6 per cent to close at 7855.
European markets closed higher yesterday: London’s FTSE added 0.3 per cent, Paris was up 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt rose 0.8 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei closed up 0.4%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3% and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.6%.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 22pts gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index falling 38 points to close at 6204.
Company newsMesoblast
(ASX:MSB) has inked a deal with one of China’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Tasly Pharmaceutical Group. The cellular medicine company will receive $40 million on closing the deal as well as double digit escalating royalties on net product sales. Under the deal Tasly will receive exclusive rights and will fund all development, manufacturing and commercialisation activities in China for the Mesoblast’s product candidates for the treatment or prevention of chronic heart failure and for the treatment of myocardial infarction. Shares in Mesoblast
(ASX:MSB) closed flat at $1.60 yesterday.
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US73.88 cents, 56.35 Pence Sterling, 83.38 Yen and 63.37 Euro cents.
CommoditiesIron ore futures are pointing to 0.6% gain.
Gold has lost $12.30c to $US1227 an ounce.
Silver was down 22c at $US15.59 an ounce.
Oil was down 39c to $US66.68 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has added almost 10 per cent to US$7341, Ethereum has gained 5.5 per cent to US$503 and EOS has jumped 11 per cent to US$8.9f0.
