The Australian sharemarket looks set to kick off the week in negative territory following mixed leads from Wall Street on Friday. The Dow Jones received a boost after Procter and Gamble posted strong quarterly sales figures which saw shares in the company soar by almost 9 per cent. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 had a flat finish with declines in health care and consumer discretionary offsetting gains in consumer staples. The Nasdaq finished the session lower after declines in Amazon, Facebook and Netflix. US bond yields were higher following comments from the Federal Reserve about plans to continue with interest rate hikes.
On the commodities front, global oil prices rose slightly on Friday following signs of surging demand in China, and gold continued to edge higher as weaker stock markets saw investors seek refuge in the safe haven.
Local economic newsToday the Commonwealth Bank releases the latest Business Sales Indicator and on Wednesday the Department of Jobs and Small Business releases its monthly Internet Vacancy report.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3 per cent to close at 25,444, the S&P 500 closed 0.04 per cent lower to 2768 and the NASDAQ fell 0.5 per cent to 7449.
European markets closed mixed on Friday: London’s FTSE added 0.3 per cent, Paris fell 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt retreated 0.3 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed on Friday, Tokyo’s Nikkei closed 0.6 per cent lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.4 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 2.6 per cent.
On the futures markets, the SPI futures are pointing to a 12 pts fall. On Friday, the Australian share market closed slightly lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 3 points lower to 5939.
Company newsYancoal
(ASX:YAL) has announced second quarter saleable coal production is up 47 per cent on the same time last year. Meantime quarterly sales volumes have increased by 53 per cent. The coal miner says its tier one assets continue to deliver strong production results at a time of sustained market price improvement with robust demand and tight Australian supply for metallurgical coals expected to overcome recent pricing declines due to China's introduction of supply reforms. Shares in Yancoal Australia
(ASX:YAL) closed 2.11 per cent lower to $4.18 on Friday.
Ex-DividendsKelly Partners Group Holdings
(ASX:KPG) is paying 1.1 cents fully franked
And Turners Automotive Group
(ASX:TRA) is paying 3.65 cents unfranked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US71.17 cents, 54.49 Pence Sterling, 80.09 Yen and 61.79 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to a 1.4 per cent gain.
Gold has dropped $1.40 to $US1229 an ounce.
Silver was up 5 cents to $US14.65 an ounce.
Oil added 57 cents to $US69.28 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has added 0.7 per cent to US$6520, Ethereum has gained 0.3 per cent to US$206 and EOS was up 1.6 per cent to US$5.46.
