The Australian market looks set to open weaker today, European shares on course for their biggest weekly fall in almost eight months and the crisis in Libya sending crude prices higher.
In US economic news: Jobless data shows that claims for benefits last week fell more than forecast to 391,000. And sales of new homes slid 13 per cent in January. Bad weather is being blamed in part for the fall.
On Thursday, Dow Jones Industrial Average, dropped 37 points to 12,069, S&P500 slipped 1 point to close 1,306 and the NASDAQ is up 15 points to close 2,738.
European stocks closed lower: London’s FTSE down 4 points, Paris down 3 and Frankfurt down 64.
To Asian markets and stocks closed mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 306, Tokyo Nikkei was down 126 and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 16 points.
The Australian share market finished lower on Thursday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index eased 37 points to close at 4,809 and on the futures market the SPI is down 14 points.
Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 8:45AM was buying $1.009 US cents, 62.55 Pence Sterling, 82.68 Yen and 73.12 Euro cents.
To company news and yesterday shares in Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX:ANZ) dipped 0.54 per cent to close at $24.08. ANZ chief executive Mike Smith called for a debate on econmic reform. The move was prompted by Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement of the introduction of a carbon tax starting on July 1, 2012. Mr Smith said Australia should be using the boom times to create a sovereign wealth fund to invest in infrastructure. He warned that without foreign investment growth in Australia will stall. ANZ recorded a profit of $4.5 billion in the year to September 30, 2010.
On Wednesday shares in ASX Ltd. (ASX:ASX) fell 1.01 per cent to close at $37.12. There are media reports this morning that one of the largest shareholders of the Singapore Exchange believes the existing offer is too high. According to the Australian Financial Review the Tokyo Stock Exchange President, who owns a 5 per cent stake and is the second largest shareholder said the offer was too much, in light of other recent deals involving global exchanges. The Singapore Exchange offered $8.4 billion for the ASX in October last year. ASX Ltd booked a half year net profit of $171.985 million to December 31, 2010.
To ex-dividends: Seven companies are going ex-dividend today among them are Austin Engineering with a $0.03 cent fully franked dividend, Coal & Allied Industries with a $1.38 fully franked dividend and Integrated Research with a $0.02 cent 50% franked dividend. Among those coming up on Monday will be ASX and Coca-Cola Amatil.
To commodities: Gold is up $1.80 to $US1,415 an ounce for the April contract on Comex, silver is down $0.13 to $33.17 for March and copper is up $0.05 at $4.33 a pound. Oil is down $0.82 at $97.28 a barrel for April light crude in New York.
