The Australian share market looks to open flat despite positive leads from Wall Street and an increase in the price of oil and gold. A wave of company reports are expected today, including BHP, Boral, and Ansell.
US economic news
The number of jobs available in the United States jumped in December to near a three-year high. Labor Department figures show companies and governments posted 3.38 million jobs in December. That's up from the 3.12 million advertised the previous month and nearly matches the three-year high reached in September.
Figures
On Tuesday, Wall Street edged higher: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 33 points to close at 12,878, the S&P500 gained three points to close at 1,347 and the Nasdaq added 2 points to close at 2,904.
European markets finished mixed yesterday: London’s FTSE lost two points, Paris added six points and Frankfurt lost 11 points.
Asian markets fell yesterday: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 11 points, Tokyo Nikkei lost 12 points and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 39 points.
After spending much of the session in positive territory until the RBA announcement, the Australian share market dropped to end Tuesday 0.5 per cent lower: The S&P/ASX 200 Index lost 22 points to finish at 4,274. But on the futures market the SPI is four points higher.
Currencies
After the RBA left interest rates at 4.25 per cent yesterday, investors drove the Aussie dollar beyond a six-month high of US$1.08. At 8:30am it was buying $US1.0806 cents, 67.99 Pence Sterling, 82.99 Yen and 81.51 Euro cents.
Company news
Shares in Qantas Airways Limited (ASX:QAN) closed flat at $1.62 on Tuesday. One of its Airbus A380 aircraft has been taken out of service after engineers found 36 hairline cracks in the wings. The airline insists the cracks aren’t as serious as those discovered by Airbus last month, which prompted European regulators to order snap checks on almost one third of the worldwide fleet. Qantas reported a net profit of $249 million in the 2011 financial year.
Shares in Gunns Limited (ASX:GNS) have been suspended since Monday when they last traded at 12.5 cents, pending an announcement expected today on capital raising and equity investment. Media reports speculate a new cornerstone investor for the troubled timber company might be an existing shareholder like Mathews Capital, or New Zealand billionaire Richard Chandler. Gunns booked a net loss of $355.5 million in the 2011 financial year.
Ex-dividends
No companies are going ex dividend today but tomorrow we’ve got Milton Corporation; Navitas; Westfield Group; and Westfield Retail.
Commodities
Gold is up $23.50 to $US1,748.40 an ounce for the February contract on Comex. Silver is up 44.4 cents to $34.19 for March. Copper is up 1.15 cents at $3.38 a pound. Oil is up $1.50 at $98.41 a barrel for March light crude in New York.
