Australian shares looks set to fall at the open, extending yesterday's losses. Wall Street finished mostly lower with the Dow Jones dropping almost 200 points. Stocks began falling to session lows following reports the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was about resign or be fired. Stocks also came under pressure as the US and China cancelled trade talks previously scheduled for this week, and the US tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods took effect.
The oil price surged to 4 year highs yesterday after OPEC leaders signaled they wouldn't be boosting output. The market is concerned about the loss of Iranian supply as US sanctions on Iran threaten to reduce quantity by around 1 million barrels a day.
To the figures from around the globe: Wall Street closed mixed yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.7 per cent to close at 26,562, the S&P 500 fell 0.4 per cent to 2,919 and the NASDAQ ended 0.1 per cent higher to close at 7993.
European markets closed lower yesterday: London’s FTSE closed 0.4 per cent lower, Paris fell 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt lost 0.6 per cent.
In Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei and China’s Shanghai Composite were closed, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.6 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 9 points fall. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index losing 8 points to close at 6187.
Company newsWhitehaven Coal
(ASX:WHC) has announced Tony Haggarty will not stand for re-election as a non-executive Director and will retire at the company's annual general meeting in October. He was appointed to the board in 2007 and has served in a number of roles including Managing Director from 2008 until 2013. The company has paid tribute to Mr Haggarty and says he is widely regarded as one of the leading figures of the Australian coal sector. Whitehaven has commenced a search for his replacement. Shares in Whitehaven Coal
(ASX:WHC) closed 1.12 per cent lower to $5.30 yesterday
Ex-dividendsBlackwall Prop Trust
(ASX:BWR) is paying 5c unfranked
Generation Dev Group
(ASX:GDG) is paying 1c 12.51 per cent franked
Rand Mining
(ASX:RND) is paying $1.25 fully franked
Tribune Res
(ASX:TBR) is paying $3.50 fully franked
WPP Aunz
(ASX:WPP) is paying 2.3c fully franked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US72.53 cents, 55.30 Pence Sterling, 81.81 Yen and 61.74 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold added $2.10 to$US1203 an ounce.
Silver was down 7 cents at $US14.29 an ounce.
Oil rose $1.49 to $US72.27 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has fallen 0.9 per cent to US$6628, Ethereum has lost 3.4 per cent to US $234 and XRP has dropped 7.8 per cent to US52 cents.
