The Australian sharemarket is looking set to open slightly up after mostly modest gains on Wall Street. A general mood of cautiousness remains ahead of the European bailout summit on Sunday.
US economic news
First time jobless claims for last week fell by 6,000 to 403,000.
Figures
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 37 points to close at 11,542, the S&P500 gained 6 points to close at 1,215 and the NASDAQ fell 5 points to close at 2,599.
European stocks closed lower: London’s FTSE was down 66 points, Paris fell 73 and Frankfurt was 147 points lower.
To Asian markets, and stocks were lower: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 326 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 90 and China’s Shanghai Composite was also down 46.
On Thursday the Australian share market closed lower: The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 69 points to close at 4,145. On the futures market the SPI is currently 13 points stronger.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 8:35AM was buying $US1.0239, 64.84 Pence Sterling, 78.7 Yen and 74.32 Euro cents.
Economic news
Today the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release its International trade price indexes for September.
Company news
Yesterday shares in Qantas Airways Limited (ASX:QAN) fell 0.33 per cent, closing at $1.48. Qantas engineers have called off the strikes for three weeks. That’s according to The Australian Financial Review. After Fair Work Australia talks engineers agreed to remove overtime bans. But Qantas says it will take months to clear the maintenance backlog and the suspension of industrial action doesn’t guarantee business as usual. Qantas reported a net profit of $249 million for the 2011 financial year.
On Thursday shares in BHP Billiton Limited (ASX:BHP), (NYSE:BHP) closed 2.52 per cent weaker at $35.48. The BHP chairman says he believes the resources boom will continue for another twenty years. Speaking at the company’s AGM in London overnight, Jac Nasser said the miner’s plans to spend $US80 billion on growth projects in the five years to 2015 were still on track. Mr Nasser believes China’s demand for resources will continue. BHP Billiton generated a record net profit of $22.3 billion in the 2011 financial year.
Ex-dividends
There aren’t any companies going ex-dividend today, coming up next week we have CPT Global, Joyce Corporation and Clover Corporation.
Commodities
Gold is down $34.10 to $US1,612 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is down $1.00 to $30.28. Copper is $0.20 lower at $3.06 a pound. Oil is down $0.81 at $85.30 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
