Australian shares look set to open modestly higher following a mixed session on Wall Street overnight. US markets lifted on Wednesday bolstered by strong earnings results. Morgan Stanley shares rose 1.8 per cent after the company reported better than expected earnings while CSX also posted stronger than forecast sales and profits sending its shares up 7 per cent. US listed shares of BHP and RIO were also higher. With BHP’s positive operational report released yesterday helping to boost gains.
US crude rose 1 per cent on strong gasoline demand signals. Iron ore was also higher and the gold price steadied following an earlier drop.
local economic newsWe can expect the latest employment figures for June. Job creation has slowed in recent months and economists are expecting 0.1 per cent rise in unemployment for the month.
MarketsWall Street closed mostly higher yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3 per cent to close at 25,199, the S&P 500 closed 0.2 per cent higher to close at 2,816 and the NASDAQ lost 0.01 per cent to close at 7854.
European markets closed higher yesterday: London’s FTSE added 0.7 per cent, Paris was up 0.5 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 0.2 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.4 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 9pts gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index adding 41 points to close at 6245.
Company newsConstruction and mining services company, CIMIC Group
(ASX:CIM) said first half year profit jumped by 12 per cent to $363 million. Meantime, the company’s revenue rose 11 per cent to $6.9 billion when compared with the same time last year.CIMIC Group said the company experienced substantial growth in all key indicators achieving double digit figures in revenue and profit in the first half. Shares in Cimic Group
(ASX:CIM) closed 0.58 per cent lower to $42.80 yesterday.
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US73.99 cents, 56.60 Pence Sterling, 83.48 Yen and 63.55 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to 1.2 per cent gain.
Gold was flat at $US1227 an ounce.
Silver was down 5c at $US15.57 an ounce.
Oil was up 77c to $US67.93 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading mixed: Bitcoin has added 0.2 per cent to US$7345, Ethereum has lost 5.2 per cent to US$476 and EOS has dropped 2.4 per cent to US$8.61.
