The Australian sharemarket is expected to open lower as it enters the final week of reporting season with soft offshore leads.
US economic news
This week, investors will be closely watching US economic indicators, including the release of data on new home sales, durable goods orders, and consumer sentiment and gross domestic product, as well as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech on Friday at the central bank’s annual meeting.
Figures
At the end of last week: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 173 points to close at 10,818, the S&P500 lost 17 points to 1,124 and the NASDAQ lost 39 points to close at 2,342.
European stocks finished lower on Friday: London’s FTSE closed 51 weaker, Paris was down 59 and Frankfurt was down 123 points.
To Asian markets, stocks closed down: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 616 lower, Tokyo Nikkei was down 225 and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 25 points.
At the end of the last week, the Australian share market finished the day and week lower: On Friday the S&P/ASX200 Index lost 149 points, to close at 4,102. On the futures market the SPI is currently 3 points higher.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:35AM was buying $1.0385 US cents, 63.05 Pence Sterling, 79.75 Yen and 72.26 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today are the results for 12 companies, but we won’t have any new economic figures until Wednesday, when the ABS releases construction work data for the June quarter.
Company news
On Friday shares in BHP Billiton Limited (ASX:BHP) closed 4.09 per cent lower at $37.50. The global miner has sealed its $US15.1 billion acquisition deal of US shale gas group Petrohawk Energy. The company says 97.4 per cent of Petrokhawk shareholders accept the offer of $US38.75 a share. BHP expects to unveil a $US22.1 billion full-year profit this Wednesday, breaking its own Australian corporate record. In the first half of its 2011 financial year, BHP Billiton Limited (ASX:BHP) recorded a net profit of $10.5 billion.
On Friday shares in Bluescope Steel Limited (ASX:BSL) lost 9.71 per cent to close at 79 cents. The steelmaking company is expected to report dire full-year results today, after a hostile environment forced it to write down the value of some assets by hundreds of millions of dollars. In the first half of its 2011 financial year, Bluescope Steel Limited (ASX:BSL) reported a full year net loss of $49.2 million.
Ex-dividends
There are six companies going ex-dividend today. They are Greencross (ASX:GXL) with a fully franked dividend of three cents; Mount Gibson Iron with a fully franked dividend of four cents; STW Communications (ASX:SGN) with a fully franked dividend of three cents; Telstra (ASX:TLS) with a fully franked dividend of 14 cents; UGL (ASX:UGL) with a fully franked dividend of 38 cents; and Woodside Petroleum (ASX:WPL), with a fully franked dividend of 53 cents.
Commodities
Gold is up $34 to $US1,852 an ounce for the December contract on Comex, silver is up $4.26 to $42.43 for September and copper is up 2 cents at $3.98 a pound. Oil is down 12 cents at $82.26 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
