The Australian stock market is expected to open lower this morning after US stocks fell and Treasuries rose when the Federal Reserve signaled it’ll keep raising interest rates. Wall Street fell sharply in the final hour of trade; the S&P 500 saw most of its losses in the last 20 minutes of trade. Separately from the Fed - the Reserve Bank of New Zealand held its key rate at 1.75 per cent announced in a monetary policy statement at 7am this morning. On the commodities front, oil has fallen and we also see a drop in gold.
Local economic news The ABS are set to release the Australian National Accounts later for Finance and Wealth, June 2018.
Also Job Vacancies figures for August will be released.
MarketsWall Street closed lower yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4 per cent to close at 26,385, the S&P 500 fell 0.3 per cent to 2,906 and the NASDAQ ended 0.2 per cent lower to close at 7990.
European markets closed higher yesterday: London’s FTSE gained 0.1 per cent, Paris added 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt rose 0.1 per cent.
Asian markets closed higher, Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.2 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.9 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 16 points fall. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed slightly higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 6 points higher to 6192.
Company newsAccounting software company Xero
(ASX:XRO) announced that it is launching an offering of US$300 million of guaranteed senior unsecured convertible notes due 2023. The notes will be listed on the Singapore Exchange and conversion of the notes will be settled with cash unless the issuer which is subsidiary Xero Investments elects to settle the conversion with Xero issuing shares. Goldman Sachs International and Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc are acting as Joint Lead Managers on the Offering. Although no new acquisitions or investments are in current agreement with Xero it is intended that after paying transaction costs and some existing term debt the net proceeds will be used for potentially buying businesses and assets in line with Xeros strategy. Shares in Xero
(ASX:XRO) closed 1.4 per cent higher to $49.69 yesterday
Currencies One Australian Dollar at 7:40 AM was buying US72.56 cents, 55.13 Pence Sterling, 81.75 Yen and 61.80 Euro cents.
CommoditiesIron ore futures are pointing to 0.2 per cent gain.
Gold dropped $6.60 to $US1199 an ounce.
Silver was down 14 cents at $US14.36 an ounce.
Oil fell 24 cents to $US72.04 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has added 1.9 per cent to US$6531, XRP jumped almost 13 per cent to US53 cents and Ethereum has gained 2.02 per cent to US$219.
Ex-dividends
