Following five days of gains the Australian share market looks to turn lower this morning after Wall Street closed little changed a tight trading range. US investors remained on the sidelines ahead of reporting season and amid uncertainty over the European debt situation after the final EU member, Slovakia, rejected a bill on Europe’s bailout fund.
Figures
Wall Street: The Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 17 points to 11,416, the S&P500 added 0.65 points to close at 1,196 and the Nasdaq firmed 17 points to close at 2,583.
European stocks closed mixed: London’s FTSE was down 3 points, Paris was down 8 and Frankfurt was up 18 points.
To Asian markets, stocks finished higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 431 points, Tokyo Nikkei was up 168 and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 4.
Yesterday the Australian share market closed higher for the fifth straight session: The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 27 points or 0.6 per cent, to close at 4,228. On the futures market the SPI is 6 points lower.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 8:35AM was buying 99.62 US cents, 63.94 Pence Sterling, 76.41 Yen and 73.04 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is housing finance data for August and the Westpac and the Melbourne Institute survey of consumer sentiment for October.
Company news
Yesterday shares in BHP Billiton Limited (ASX:BHP) finished 0.78 per cent higher at $37.39. Uranium prices are expected to fall as BHP moves to providing around 10 per cent of the global uranium supply by 2020, according to The Australian. The forecast comes as the global miner prepares for the $US20 billion expansion of its Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia, having been granted environmental approval earlier this week. UBS global commodity analyst, Tom Price, has told the paper that the project is so big that it will cause prices in the uranium market fall before the product even comes into the market. In the 2011 financial year BHP Billiton reported a record net profit of $22.3 billion.
On Tuesday shares in Mirvac Group (ASX:MGR) gained 0.82 per cent, closing at $1.23. Property developer Mirvac Group has refuted that it is facing funding dilemmas, amid the current pressures on European banks. Responding to media reports raising doubt over equity raising by local real estate investment trusts, Mirvac says it has current funding headroom of more than $600 million and gearing of 26.3 per cent. Mirvac believes it is well positioned to withstand any uncertainty that might be created by the disruption in overseas financial markets. In the 2011 financial year, Mirvac Group generated a net profit of $183 million.
Ex-dividends
The only company going ex-dividend today is TPG Telecom with a $0.02 cent fully franked dividend. Among those coming up later this week are Ausdrill and Australian Leaders Fund.
Commodities
Gold is down $9.80 to $US1,661 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver is up $0.02 cents to $32.00.
Copper is down $0.08 at $3.29 a pound.
Oil is up $0.40 at $85.81 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
