Despite positive leads from US markets, the Australian share market looks set to open lower. Stocks bounced on Friday after sharp declines on Wednesday and Thursday saw the Dow shed more than 1300 points. Tech stocks led the charge with Apple and Microsoft lifting by over 3.5 per cent. However, the US share market posted its worst weekly performance since March with investors concerned by rising interest rates and a possible economic slowdown.
On the commodities front, Gold increased by around 1.5 percent last week, while global oil prices rose slightly on Friday after the International Energy Agency said the market looked adequately supplied for now.
Local economic newsTomorrow lending finance data is issued by the ABS, the minutes of the last Reserve Bank Board meeting are also due. On Wednesday, overseas arrivals and departures data is issued by the ABS and, finally on Thursday, the September job market figures are released.
MarketsWall Street closed higher on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.2 per cent to close at 25,340, the S&P 500 closed 1.4 per cent higher to 2767 and the NASDAQ gained 2.3 per cent to 7497.
European markets closed lower on Friday: London’s FTSE lost 0.2 per cent, Paris fell 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt retreated 0.1 per cent.
Asian markets closed higher on Friday, Tokyo’s Nikkei closed 0.5 per cent higher, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.1 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.9 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 51 pts fall. On Friday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 12 points higher to 5896.
Company newsMichael Hill
(ASX:MHJ) has provided a trading update for the quarter to September 30 2018. The company says group revenue for continuing operations declined 8.8 per cent for the three months, with same store sales down 11 per cent. The company says the reduction is partly due to underestimating marketing and promotional activities required to support the group's strategic shift from a reliance on discount based pricing. Shares in Michael Hill International
(ASX:MHJ) closed flat at $0.91 on Friday.
Ex-dividendsNZME
(ASX:NZM) is paying 1.8222 cents unfranked
TPG Telecom
(ASX:TPM) is paying 2 cents fully franked
United Overseas Australia
(ASX:UOS) is paying 0.5 cents unfranked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US71.14 cents, 54.37 Pence Sterling, 79.79 Yen and 61.63 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to a 0.9 per cent gain.
Gold has dropped $5.60 to $US1222 an ounce.
Silver was up 3 cents to $US14.63 an ounce.
Oil added 37 cents to $US71.18 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has added over 1 per cent to US$6337, Ethereum has gained 0.6 per cent to US$200.24 and EOS was up 0.39 per cent to US$5.24.
