Australian shares looks set for a positive start after US sharemarkets finished mostly higher. Investors cheered the news of Canada joining a trade deal with the US and Mexico. The Dow Jones rallied following the reports with Chevron and Boeing boosting the index. The tech heavy Nasdaq however closed slightly lower as declines in Facebook and Intel pared gains. Shares in Tesla jumped over 17 per cent after CEO Elon Musk settled a law suit with regulators.
The oil price rose on the back of concerns over supply while gold and copper were both down.
Local economic newsToday the Reserve Bank Board meets but no changes to interest rates is expected.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7 per cent to close at 26,651, the S&P 500 gained 0.4 per cent to 2,925 and the NASDAQ ended 0.1 per cent lower to close at 8037.
European markets closed mixed yesterday: London’s FTSE lost 0.2 per cent, Paris added 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt rose 0.8 per cent.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.5 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite were closed.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 9 points gain. Yesterday,the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 35 points lower to 6172.
Company newsHancock Prospecting has increased its bid for Atlas Iron
(ASX:AGO) to 4.6 cents per share. Hancock launched an off market takeover bid for the iron company through its subsidiary Redstone earlier this year at an initial price of 4.2 cents. Redstone has also advised that its voting power in the company has reached 88.25 per cent. Atlas shareholders who accepted the offer prior to the increase will receive an additional 0.4 cents per atlas share. Rival bidder Fortescue Metals bowed out of the takeover battle last Friday selling its 11 per cent stake in the company. Shares in Atlas Iron
(ASX:AGO) closed 6.98 per cent higher to 4.6 cents yesterday.
Ex-DividendsOneall In
(ASX:1AL) is paying 3.5c unfranked
Imperial Pacific
(ASX:IPC) is paying 6.25c fully franked
London City Equities
(ASX:LCE) is paying 1.375c fully franked
And Nick Scali
(ASX:NCK) 24c fully franked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US72.23 cents, 55.41 Pence Sterling, 82.32 Yen and 62.41 Euro cents.
CommoditiesGold dropped $3.60 to$US1193 an ounce.
Silver was down 19cat $US14.52an ounce.
Oiladded $2.22 to$US75.47a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading mixed: Bitcoin has dropped 0.4 per cent to US$6568,Ethereum has fallen 0.04 per cent to US$230 and XRP has increased 2.20 per cent to US58.5 cents.
