Australian shares are expected to start the day flat as concerns about trade tensions continue to weigh on financial markets. Wall Street finished mostly higher yesterday, tech stocks regained some ground after last week's losses. Shares of Facebook and Microsoft gained 0.7 and 1 per cent respectively. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq finished the session slightly higher but the Dow Jones shed 0.2 per cent.
Local economic newsToday we can look out for the business conditions survey for August from the National Australia Bank.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.2 per cent lower to 25,857, the S&P 500 added 0.2 per cent to 2,877 and the NASDAQ gained 0.3 per cent to close at 7924.
European markets closed higher yesterday: London’s FTSE ended slightly higher, Paris added 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt gained 0.2 per cent.
Asian markets were mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.3 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 1.2 per cent.
On the futures markets, the SPI futures are pointing to a1 point gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed flat with the S&P/ASX 200 Index losing 2 points to close at 6142.
Company newsSirtex Medical
(ASX:SRX) will be removed from the ASX on the 14th of September subject to the final court approval of the scheme of arrangement whereby the company will be acquired by Grand Pharna Sphere. Yesterday shareholders in the medical device company voted in favour of the $1.9 billion takeover. Shares in Sirtex Medical
(ASX:SRX) closed 0.3 per cent higher at $32.90 yesterday.
Ex-dividends
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US71.15 cents, 54.66 Pence Sterling, 79.05 Yen and 61.37 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to 0.8 per cent fall.
Gold added 60 cents to$US1201 an ounce.
Silver was up 4 cents at $US14.21 an ounce.
Oil lost 22 cents to $US67.53 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has lost 0.9 per cent to US$6334, Ethereum has fallen 1.7 per cent to US $197 and EOS was down 1.2 per cent to US$5.04.
