Australian shares look set to open flat to slightly lower today, on the back of concerns about whether the United States will avert debt default, and lift its debt ceiling before the second of August.
Figures
On Friday: Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 43 points weaker at 12,681, S&P500 gained 1 point to close at 1,345 and the NASDAQ added 24 points to close at 2,859.
European stocks were higher: London’s FTSE up 35 points, Paris up 26 and Frankfurt up 36.
Asian stocks were higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 458, Tokyo Nikkei was up 122 and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 5 points.
On Friday the Australian share market ended the week higher: The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 47 points to close at 4,603. While on the futures market the SPI is currently 3 points higher.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $1.0855 US cents, 66.44 Pence Sterling, 84.86 Yen and 75.32 Euro cents.
Economic news
The Bureau of Statistics will release Producer Price Indexes for the June quarter later today.
Company news
On Friday shares in National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) gained 2.52 per cent to close at $25.22. Although the bank missed a deadline to lodge a bid, it is still in the running to purchase more than 600 Lloyds Banking Group branches in the UK. British media reports said there was a lacklustre response to the first call out of bids. Meanwhile, NAB’s subsidiary MLC has reportedly poached up to 60 Axa Asia Pacific financial planning businesses, which were recently acquired by AMP. For the six months to March this year, NAB posted a profit of $2.4 billion.
On Friday shares in Myer (ASX:MYR) rose 4.17 per cent to close at $2.50. The department store’s sales and share price targets for the 2012 financial year have been downgraded by Credit Suisse. An analyst’s report expects Myer to report a 3 per cent fall in sales, and has reduced its share price target by 20 cents. In the first six months of its 2011 financial year Myer’s net profit fell 5.2 per cent to $106.7 million.
Ex-dividends
The only company going ex-dividend today is Countplus (ASX:CUP) with a 2 cent fully franked dividend. Coming up on Friday is Cellnet Group (ASX:CLT).
Commodities
Gold is up $2.50 to $US1,601 an ounce for the August contract on Comex, silver is up $1.18 to $40.12 for September and copper is steady at $4.41 a pound. Oil is up 74 cents at $99.87 a barrel for August light crude in New York.
