Australian shares are set to open flat after Wall Street finished in the red on Monday, tech stocks led the downward charge taking the Nasdaq lower for a third day. Shares of Facebook and Netflix fell 2.2 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively; Amazon and Alphabet were also down around 2 per cent. Telecommunications was the S&P 500's best sector, up 2.2 per cent followed by energy and financials.
On the commodities front, gold steadied on Monday while US crude prices rose back above $70 a barrel for the first time in a week, as tensions increased in the Middle East. Meantime iron ore prices fell by around 0.6 per cent.
Local economic news Building approvals, private sector credit and new home sales are all due to be released.
MarketsWall Street closed lower yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.6 per cent to close at 25,307, the S&P 500 closed 0.6 per cent lower to close at 2,803 and the NASDAQ fell the most, losing 1.4 per cent to close at 7630.
European markets closed weaker yesterday: London’s FTSE fell 0.01 per cent, Paris was down 0.4 per cent and Frankfurt lost 0.5 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower, Tokyo’s Nikkei closed 0.7 per cent lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.2 per cent.
On the futures markets, the SPI futures are pointing to a 2pts loss. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index falling 22 points to close at 6278.
Company newsVideo production company, Big Un
(ASX:BIG) has reported a $52.2 million net loss for the half year to December 2017. The company said the $52 million loss included non-cash items totalling $36 million, a $6.3 million write down of goodwill and share based payments of $18.7 million. In May, Big Review TV, the operating company of Big Un was placed it into voluntary administration by its directors and Chief Executive Richard Evertz resigned. Big Un’s
(ASX:BIG) securities have been suspended from quotation since mid- February after a number of media reports regarding the company’s relationship with sponsor, First Class Securities. Shares in Big Un last traded at $2.22.
Ex DividendsOne company is going ex-dividend today:
Mcp Master Income Trust
(ASX:MXT) is paying 0.91c unfranked
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US74.08 cents, 56.43 Pence Sterling, 82.28 Yen and 63.30 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to 0.2 per cent gain.
Gold lost $2.50 to $US1230 an ounce.
Silver was up 1c at $US15.51 an ounce.
Oil was up $1.40 to $US70.09 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has dropped 0.8 per cent to US$8132, Ethereum has lost 2.5 per cent to US$454 and EOS was down 6.6 per cent to US$7.72.
