The Aussie sharemarket is expected to open lower today following the sharp drop in commodity prices last week, and the sharemarket closing at a more than two year low.
US economic news
Forecasts for third-quarter earnings for the S&P500 companies have slipped to 13.7 per cent growth from 17 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters data. Meanwhile, the department of housing will release new US home sales figures today.
Figures
Wall Street finished last week higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 38 points to close at 10,771, the S&P500 added 7 points to 1,136 and the Nasdaq lifted 28 points to close at 2,483.
European stocks finished higher on Friday: London’s FTSE up 25 points, Paris up 28 and Frankfurt up 32 points.
To Asian markets, and stocks were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 243, Tokyo Nikkei was closed on Friday and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 10 points.
On Friday in the Australian share market: the S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 62 points to close at 3,903. And, on the futures market the SPI is currently 9 points lower.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:35AM was buying US 97.74 cents, 63.18 Pence Sterling, 74.76 Yen and 72.36 Euro cents.
Company news
At the end of last week shares in Santos Limited (ASX:STO) fell 2.43 per cent, closing at $10.85, The company’s chief executive David Knox says investors won’t have faith in its price until they see real signals the global uncertainty is over. He told News Ltd that Santos is able to ride out the current crisis because its secured all financing for two major liquefied natural gas projects that are under construction. For the six months to June, Santos Limited (ASX:STO) reported a net profit of $504 million.
Meanwhile Santos’ takeover offer of Eastern Star Gas Limited (ASX:ESG) has been well received. Eastern Star Gas finished last week down 2.67 per cent at 73 cents. Eastern Star will ask its shareholders to back the offer when they vote on October 28. The share-based acquisition valued shares at 90 cents back in July but the value has dropped since then, due to the downturn in global markets as well as a drop in the Santos share price.
For the six months to June, Eastern Star Gas Limited (ASX:ESG) booked a net loss of $4.3 million.
Commodities
Gold is down $59.50 to $US1,639 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is down $5.02 cents to $30.10. Copper is down 18 cents at $3.28 a pound. Oil is down 66 cents at $79.85 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
