The Australian market looks to lift at open after Wall Street rose on optimism about Europe’s debt situation. Rising commodity prices saw US investors turn to mining and energy stocks. The tech sector also added to broad based gains.
US economic news
Ahead of Wall Street’s key monthly jobs report due this Friday two reports delivered mixed news:
Payroll processor ADP has reported that private-sector employers added more jobs that expected last month. 91,000 jobs were added in September, compared with 89,000 jobs the month before.
Outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas has shown the highest number of planned job losses in more than two years. Announced layoffs jumped to 115,730 in September from 51,114 the month before.
Figures
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 131 points to close at 10,940, the S&P500 gained 20 points to close at 1,144 and the NASDAQ added 56 points to close at 2,461.
European stocks closed higher: London’s FTSE was up 158 points, Paris was up 123 and Frankfurt was up 256.
To Asian markets, and stocks were lower: Hong Kong and China were both closed, while Tokyo’s Nikkei was down 73 points.
The Australian share market closed 1.4 per cent higher on Wednesday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 54 points to close at 3,927. On the futures market the SPI is 69 points stronger.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 96.58 US cents, 62.45 Pence Sterling, 74.16 Yen and 72.38 Euro cents.
Company news
On Wednesday shares in Coca-Cola Amatil Limited (ASX:CCL) dipped 0.34 per cent, closing at $11.87. The chief of Coca-Cola Amatil, Terry Davis, has confirmed the beverages manufacturer is still interested in Foster's Group Limited (ASX:FGL) non-beer assets. Last month Foster’s accepted SABMiller’s sweetened $12.3 billion takeover offer for Australia’s biggest brewer. While the deal is still to be approved by shareholders, Mr Davis says assuming due diligence goes well Coca-Cola would have a fairly high expectation of purchasing the assets. While Mr Davis didn’t speculate what price the assets would come at, reports suggest they could be around the $200 million mark. In the first half of the 2011 financial year Coca-Cola Amatil’s posted a net profit of $154 million.
Yesterday shares in National Australia Bank Limited (ASX:NAB) rose 1.49 per cent to close at $21.78. The NAB has appointed former treasury secretary Dr Ken Henry to its board. Dr Henry will become a non-executive director from November 1, 2011, and comes with extensive experience in both international and domestic finance sector policy. In the first half of the 2011 financial year National Australia Bank recorded a net profit of $2.4 billion.
Ex-dividends
Two companies are going ex-dividend today: GBST Holdings with a $0.02 fully franked dividend and OrotonGroup with a $0.28 fully franked dividend. Coming up tomorrow: Clime Capital, Marbletrend Group and National Can Industries.
Commodities
Gold is up $25.60 to $US1,641 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver is up $0.51 cents to $30.35.
Copper is steady at $3.11 a pound.
Oil is up $4.01 at $79.68 a barrel for Noivember light crude in New York.
