The Australian market looks set to build on yesterday’s gains after Wall Street closed higher, albeit in turbulent trade. After starting the week and session lower US stocks gained on Tuesday, with investors responding well to news the Federal Reserve plans to keep rates at record lows until 2013.
US economic news
The Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy statement has left the key benchmark short-term interest rate close to zero, “at least through mid-2013".
Figures
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 430 points to close at 11,240, the S&P500 added 53 points to close at 1,173 and the NASDAQ lifted 125 points to close at 2,483.
European stocks closed mixed: London’s FTSE up 96 points, Paris up 51 and Frankfurt was down 6 points.
To Asian markets, stocks were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1,160, Tokyo Nikkei was down 153 and China’s Shanghai Composite was down almost 1 point.
Staging a recovery on Tuesday, the Australian share market rebounded out of the red to close 1.2 per cent higher: The S&P/ASX 200 Index added 49 points to close at 4,035. On the futures market the SPI is currently 114 points stronger.
Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 7:35AM was buying $1.0388 US cents, 63.63 Pence Sterling, 80.16 Yen and 72.21 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, lending finance data for June.
From Westpac and the Melbourne Institute, Leading Indexes of Economic Activity for August.
Company news
Shares in Origin Energy Limited (ASX:ORG) finished 1.95 per cent higher yesterday, closing at $13.57, that was after the company confirmed China's Sinopec had completed its $US1.8 billion purchase of a 15 percent stake in the Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas project in Queensland. The gas-export facility is a joint venture between Origin and ConocoPhillips that will sell 4.3 million metric tons of LNG annually to Sinopec from 2015 as part of the deal. Sinopec’s 15 per cent stake in the venture will cut Origin and ConocoPhillips’ interests down to 42.5 per cent. In the first half of its 2011 financial year, Origin Energy booked a net loss of $100 million.
Yesterday shares in Elders Limited (ASX:ELD) rose 1.72 per cent to close at $0.295. Agribusiness Elders will be breathing a sigh of relief this morning when the around 3,000 head of Elders cattle will depart Darwin for Indonesia, the first shipment since the ban on live cattle exports was lifted. The federal government put a ban on exporting to Indonesia after an ABC report exposed the mistreatment of animals in Indonesian abattoirs. Elders has since provided the government with supply chain assurance, as it owns and controls its own feedlots and abattoirs in Indonesia. In the first half of its 2011 financial year, Elders booked a loss of $11.6 million.
Ex-dividends
Five companies are going ex-dividend today. Among them we have Eservglobal with a $0.12 cent dividend, 68.34 per cent franked, Platinum Capital with a $0.02 fully franked dividend and Rio Tinto with a $0.50 cent fully franked dividend.
Commodities
Gold is up $29.80 to $US1,743 an ounce for the December contract on Comex, silver is down $1.50 to $37.88 for September and copper is up $0.01 at $3.97 a pound. Oil is down $2.01 at $79.30 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
