The Australian share market looks set to open lower this morning rocked by fears of a global trade war as tensions increase between the US and Turkey. Turkey has threated to put additional tariffs on imports such as American made cars and alcohol. US stocks had their worst day in seven weeks yesterday. Tech was disappointed by results from Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings. On the commodities front, copper sank into a bear market and crude oil dropped below $65 a barrel after a report that American stockpiles rose the most since March 2017. Oil dropped and gold has also seen a dip. Iron ore futures are pointing to 3.9 per cent fall.
US economic newsIn US economic news due out today we can expect to see a report on the July figures for their labour force.
MarketsTo the figures from around the globe: Wall Street closed lower on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.5 per cent lower to close at 25,162, the S&P 500 lost 0.8 per cent to close at 2,818 and the NASDAQ dipped 1.2 per cent to close at 7774.
European markets closed lower yesterday: London’s FTSE lost 1.5 per cent, Paris was down 1.8 per cent and Frankfurt dropped 1.6 per cent.
Asian markets closed lowed, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.7 per cent lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 1.6 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 2.1 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 53 points fall. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index adding 29 points to close at 6329.
Company news Practice Insight, a subsidiary of intellectual property company IPH
(ASX:IPH) has sold of two of its products, Filing Analytics and Citation Eagle, to CPA Global, a leading intellectual property services and technology provider, for $10 million. The sale will generate an accounting profit in the consolidated accounts of IPH Limited of approximately $2 million in the 2019 financial year after taking into account the assets’ carrying values and transaction and transition services costs. Proceeds from the sale will be used to pay down existing debt. As part of the transaction Practice Insight will provide agreed transition support to the purchaser to assist in the migration of the products into its business. Shares in IPH
(ASX:IPH) closed 2.17 per cent higher to $5.17.
Reporting SeasonWe can watch out for Telstra’s
(ASX:TLS) financial results expected today as well as a number of others including Sonic Healthcare
(ASX:SHL) and Downer EDI
(ASX:DOW).
Ex-DividendsBell Financial Group
(ASX:BFG) is paying 2.75c fully franked
G.U.D. Holdings
(ASX:GUD) is paying 28c fully franked
Navigator Global
(ASX:NGI) is paying 12.12c unfranked
Plato Inc Max
(ASX:PL8) is paying 0.5c fully franked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US72.41 cents, 57.07 Pence Sterling, 80.16 Yen and 63.82 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to 3.9 per cent fall.
Gold dropped $18.90 to $US1182 an ounce.
Silver was down 63c at $US14.43an ounce.
Oil dropped $1.99 to $US64.34 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has added 4.2 per cent to US$6383, Ethereum has risen 8.7 per cent to US$286 and EOS was up 8.1 per cent to US$4.72.
