The SPI is pointing to a weaker start for the Australian share market. Yesterday Wall St closed flat for the second day this week in a low volume session. Investors considered meeting minutes from the Federal Reserve, in addition to another downgrade of Portugal's sovereign debt and, The People's Bank of China hiking its interest rates for the fourth time since October. The price of gold spiked to a record high, hitting over $US1450 dollars an ounce.
Economic news: The Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes hinted that it might move to lift rates later this year amid rising inflation. The Fed claims, “A few participants indicated that economic conditions might warrant a move toward less-accommodative monetary policy this year.” Also, The Institute for Supply Management reported that service-sector activity dropped in March. The non-manufacturing index declined to 57.3 last month, from 59.7 in February. The fall was slightly more than had been expected.
Looking to the figures and on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 6 points lower at 12,394, while the S&P500 closed flat at 1,333 and the NASDAQ added 2 points to close at 2,791.
European stocks closed mostly steady: London’s FTSE down 10 points, Paris down 1 and Frankfurt was flat.
To Asian markets and Hong Kong and China were both closed while Tokyo’s Nikkei was down 103 points.
The Australian share market closed stronger on Tuesday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 13 points to close at 4,900. While on the futures market the SPI is currently 3 points lower.
Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying $1.0328 US cents, 63.38 Pence Sterling, 87.76 Yen and 72.65 Euro cents.
Economic news: Due out today is the Australian Bureau of Statistics housing finance data for February.
Company news: On Tuesday shares in Computershare Ltd (ASX:CPU) rose 2.04 per cent to close at $9.52. Computershare has expanded its Italian presence, announcing that it has inked a deal to acquire an Italian issuer services provider, Servizio Titoli SpA. Computershare has agreed to pay the London Stock Exchange Group around $44.6 million for the acquisition and says it expects to complete the takeover by mid-May 2011. Servizio Titoli is Italy's leading provider of issuer services and works on behalf of more than 50 per cent of Italy's listed companies, generating revenues of around $13 million. In the first six months of the 2011 financial year Computershare reported a net profit of $117.7 million.
Yesterday shares in Leighton Holdings Ltd (ASX:LEI) added 0.07 per cent to close at $29.42. Development and contracting company Leighton Holdings has scored its second BHP Billiton Ltd (ASX:BHP) contract in a week. Leighton’s subsidiary, Leighton Contractors has been awarded a $148 million development contract at the Broadmeadow mine for the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance in Queensland. Last week Leighton’s subsidiary Thiess Pty Ltd was awarded a $166 million contract at BHP’s Jimblebar mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. In the first six months of the 2011 financial year Leighton Holdings posted a net profit of $218 million.
Ex-dividends: Five companies are going ex-dividend today, all with fully franked dividends; Ausdrill with a $0.06 dividend, Austbrokers Holdings with an $0.08 dividend, Asian Masters Fund with a $0.01 dividend David Jones with a $0.13 dividend and GBST Holdings with a $0.02 dividend. Coming up on Friday is Noni B.
Commodities: Gold is up $19.50 to $US1,452 an ounce for the June contract on Comex, silver is up $0.69 to $39.18 for May and copper is up $0.01 at $4.26 a pound. Oil is down $0.13 at $108.34 a barrel for May light crude in New York.
