Political turmoil causes unease: ASX to open higher

Market Reports

by Rachael Jones

Australian shares are set to open higher today – despite the political turmoil brewing this week. Earlier shares were at a three week low. Wall Street moved lower yesterday as the new tariffs for China and the US were imposed. US$16 billion worth of products will be affected. Investors in the US are also keeping an eye on the legal troubles of President Donald Trump’s former advisors. Commodities dropped.

Markets 

Wall Street closed lower on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.3 per cent lower to close at 25,657, the S&P 500 closed 0.2 per cent lower at 2,857 and the NASDAQ fell 0.1 per cent to close at 7878.

European markets closed loweer yesterday: London’s FTSE fell 0.2 per cent, Paris was slightly lower and Frankfurt dropped 0.2 per cent.

Asian markets closed mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.2 per cent lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.5 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.4 per cent.

On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 19 points gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index losing 22 points to close at 6244.

Company news 

Loan company Money3 Corporation (ASX:MNY) has appointed a new Chief Financial Officer. Siva Subramani joined the company in November last year as the Treasury Director, managing the introduction of the existing debt facility and the repayment of the corporate debt and bonds. He also led Money3’s transition to the new accounting standards AASB 9 Financial Instruments and AASB 15 Revenue Recognition. Prior to working at Money3 he held the position of Director, Assurance at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Shares in Money3 Corporation (ASX:MNY) closed up 0.9 per cent to $2.08 yesterday

Reporting Season 

- APN Outdoor Group (ASX:APO)
- Australian Finance Group (ASX:AFG)
- Brambles (ASX:BXB)
- Costa Group Holdings (ASX:CGC)
- Mayne Pharma Group (ASX:MYX)
- Medibank (ASX:MPL)
- MYOB Group (ASX:MYO)
- Star Entertainment Grp (ASX:SGR)
- Tassal Group (ASX:TGR)

Ex-dividends

Ansell (ASX:ANN) is paying 33.96c unfranked
Argo Investments (ASX:ARG) is paying 16c fully franked
Bingo Industries (ASX:BIN) is paying 2c fully franked
Class (ASX:CL1) is paying 2.5c fully franked
Energy Action (ASX:EAX) is paying 4c fully franked
Ingenia Group (ASX:INA) is paying 5.65c unfranked
Platinum Asia (ASX:PAI) is paying 6c fully franked
Platinum Capital (ASX:PMC) 6c fully franked

Commodities and the dollar

One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US72.49 cents, 56.60 Pence Sterling, 80.65 Yen and 62.81 Euro cents.

Iron ore futures are pointing to 0.2 per cent fall.
Gold lost $11.50 to $US1192 an ounce.
Silver was down 27c at $US14.58 an ounce.
Oil fell 2c to $US67.84 a barrel.

Cryptocurrencies

The three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has added 1.7 per cent to US$6492, Ethereum has gained 2.7 per cent to US$277 and EOS was up 4.6 per cent to US$4.87.
  

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