The climb continues as Australian shares are set to see a rise this morning after a rally in Europe and Wall Street overnight. US stocks gained the most in more than six months – the S&P surged more than 2 per cent and the NASDAQ rose 2.9 per cent – its biggest gain since March. Technology stocks looked set to extend gains in the futures session as Netflix rallied on a surge in net subscribers. Stocks in Hong Kong rose after a few days of losses.
US economic newsJob openings data showed that there were 7.14 million unfilled positions in the economy in August. That was the highest level since the series started in 2000 and compared to 7.08 million vacancies in July.
Local economic newsWestpac will release the Lending Index for September later today.
MarketsTaking all of this into equation, the ASX futures are pointing to a 32 point gain.
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 33 points or 0.6 per cent higher at 5,870.
Wall Street closed up yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.2 per cent to close at 25,798, the S&P 500 added 2.2 per cent to close at 2.810 and the NASDAQ gained 2.9 per cent to close at 7,645.
European markets closed up: London’s FTSE gained 0.4 per cent, Paris gained 1.5 per cent and Frankfurt gained 1.4 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 1.3 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.1 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.9 per cent.
Company news 1300SMILES
(ASX:ONT) has partnered with YWAM to provide Dental Training. The Medical Ship works alongside Papua New Guinea’s National Department of Health to help develop communities in areas of health, training and community development. 1300SMILES will offer Certificate III in Dental Assisting. Trainees will have the option of undertaking some of their training on board the MV YWAM PNG, Townsville’s Training and Medical Ship which focuses on helping to build healthy villages in rural and remote Papua New Guinea. Shares in 133 Smiles Limited
(ASX:ONT) closed flat at $6.15 yesterday.
Ex-dividendsThree companies are going ex-dividend today: Gowing Brothers
(ASX:GOW), paying 6 cents fully franked, Katana Capital
(ASX:KAT), paying 0.75 cents fully franked, and NRW Holdings
(ASX:NWH), paying 2 cents fully franked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:25AM was buying 71.41 US cents, 54.16 Pence Sterling, 80.19 Yen and 61.69 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has lost $2.80 to US$1227.50 an ounce.
Silver has lost $0.05 to US$14.68 an ounce.
Oil has gained $0.10 to US$71.71 a barrel.
Iron Ore has lost 0.2 per cent to US$71.50.
Iron Ore futures are suggesting a 0.1 per cent fall.
CryptocurrenciesBitcoin has gained 0.2 per cent to US$6,585 Ethereum gained 1.3 per cent to US$209, and XRP has gained 5.8 per cent to US$0.46.
