The Australian sharemarket is set to open flat following US and European markets closing flat or slightly lower overnight. Investors are cautiously looking ahead to next week’s euro-zone meeting.
US economic news
The Institute for Supply Management reported its index of national factory activity rose to 52.7 from 50.8 the month before.
402,000 initial jobless claims were filed last week, up by 6,000.
Looking ahead, non-farm payrolls and the unemployment rate for November.
European economic news
The president of the European Central Bank has hinted the bank may step up its support for the European economy.
Figures
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 26 points to close at 12,020, the S&P500 fell 2 points to close at 1,245 and the Nasdaq gained 6 points to close at 2,626.
European stocks closed lower: London’s FTSE was down 16 points, Paris fell 25 points and Frankfurt lost 53 points.
To Asian markets, stocks finished higher: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1,013 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei up 163 points and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 53 points.
The Australian share market closed higher on Thursday. The S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 109 points to close at 4,229. On the futures market the SPI is currently 2 points higher.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 8:40AM is buying $1.024 US cents, 65.25 Pence Sterling, 79.54 Yen and 76.05 Euro cents.
Company news
Yesterday shares in Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX:ANZ) closed 3.02 per cent higher at $20.50. ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA), National Australia Bank Limited (ASX:NAB) and Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) have all been hit with a historic downgrade to their credit ratings. Standard and Poor’s cut the long term ratings of Australia’s big four banks by one notch to AA-, as the agency applied its new bank rating rules. The move is likely to push up their funding costs. ANZ reported a full year net profit of $5.4 billion.
Yesterday shares in Rio Tinto Limited (ASX:RIO), (NYSE:RIO) closed 4.72 per cent higher at $65.92. The miner will invest an additional $US2.7 billion to modernise its aluminium smelter in British Colombia, Canada. The project involves increasing the smelter’s production capacity by more than 48 per cent, that’s 420,000 tonnes of aluminium each year. Rio Tinto reported a net profit of $7.5 billion in the first half of 2011.
Commodities
Gold is down $10.50 to $US1,739 an ounce for the February contract on Comex. Silver has fallen $0.05 to $32.76 for March. Copper has dropped by $0.04 at $3.53 a pound. Oil is down $0.16 at $100.20 a barrel for January light crude in New York.
