Australian shares are set to open flat this morning as Wall Street rose as investors held onto hopes for an ease in the US-China trade war with talks due this week. The MSCI’s all country world index also climbed on the hopes of these talks. Tomorrow the US Federal Reserve will release minutes from its August policy meeting – investors will be looking for signs of a rate hike. Many expect a hike for the third time this year next month. On the commodities front, oil has gained and gold has added over $13.
MarketsWall Street closed higher on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.4 per cent higher to close at 25,759, the S&P 500 added 0.2 per cent to close at 2,857 and the NASDAQ increased 0.1 per cent to close at 7821.
European markets closed higher yesterday: London’s FTSE added 0.4 per cent, Paris was up 0.7 per cent and Frankfurt gained almost 1 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.3 per cent lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.4 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 1.1 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 3 points fall. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed slightly higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index adding 6 points to close at 6345.
Local economic newsRBA will release the latest board meeting minutes, and the governor Philip Lowe is holding talks in Canberra today.
Company newsTawana Resources
(ASX:TAW) has moved a step forward in the proposed merger with Alliance Mineral Assets. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission registered the Scheme Booklet yesterday. The Merger is to be effected by way of a members scheme of arrangement whereby Tawana Shareholders will receive 1.1 new Alliance Shares for every 1 Tawana Share held. Implementation of the Scheme will consolidate 100 per cent ownership of the Bald Hill Mine, and elevate the status of the merged group as a pure-play ASX and SGX Catalist listed lithium company ideally positioned to become a sizeable producer of high demand lithium concentrate. Shares in Tawana Resources
(ASX:TAW) closed 2.86 per cent lower to $0.34 yesterday.
Companies reporting today- Seven West Media
(ASX:SWM)- Amcor
(ASX:AMC)- Emeco Holdings
(ASX:EHL)- Healthscope
(ASX:HSO)- Oil Search
(ASX:OSH)- Scentre Group
(ASX:SCG)- Super Retail Group
(ASX:SUL)- BHP Billiton
(ASX:BHP)- Monadelphous Group
(ASX:MND)Ex-DividendsComputershare
(ASX:CPU) is paying 21c fully franked
Fairfax Media
(ASX:FXJ) is paying 1.8c 50 franked
Insurance Australia
(ASX:IAG) is paying 20c fully franked
Infomedia
(ASX:IFM) is paying 1.7c fully franked
IPH
(ASX:IPH) is paying 11c 50 franked
REA Group
(ASX:REA) is paying 62c fully franked
Commodities and the dollarOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US73.42 cents, 57.39 Pence Sterling, 80.81 Yen and 63.93 Euro cents.
Iron ore futures are pointing to 0.9 per cent fall.
Gold gained $13.10 to $US1197 an ounce.
Silver was up 11c at $US14.74an ounce.
Oil added $0.23 to $US65.44 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has lost 0.3 per cent to US$6467, Ethereum has dropped 4.5 per cent to US$288 and EOS was down 3.1 per cent to US$5.11.
