Rollercoaster ride for US stocks: ASX set to open lower

Market Reports

by Rachael Jones

The S&P/ASX 200 Index is set to open lower this morning. Most US equities fell with financial and commodity shares pacing losses. Energy producers slumped more than 1 per cent as crude traded at a five-week low. Tech stocks helped the NASDAQ stay buoyant. Earlier, the Shanghai Composite Index surged the most since March 2016 after a draft was released at the weekend pointing to a tax reform. The US dollar rose to the highest level in two months as Australian dollar sits at 71 US cents.

Markets 

Wall Street closed mixed yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell0.5 per cent to close at 25,317, the S&P 500 dropped 0.4 per cent to 2,756 and the NASDAQ ended 0.3 per cent higher to close at 7469.

European markets closed lower yesterday: London’s FTSE fell 0.1 per cent, Paris dropped 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.3 per cent lower.

Asian markets closed higher, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.3 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite jumped 4.1 per cent.

On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 12 points fall. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 35 points lower to 5905

Company news 

Production company Beyond International (ASX:BYI) released a report yesterday showing increased production for the next few years. The Production Division currently has 24 individual titles with revenues totalling almost $38 million in production – That's $42 and half million for the financial year 2018. Over the past 2-3 years Beyond has extended its television production and distribution relationships with international streaming and OTT platforms globally. Shares in Beyond International (ASX:BYI) closed 2.5 per cent higher to $0.82 yesterday

Ex-Dividends

Sandon Capital Investments (ASX:SNC) is paying 3.5 cents fully franked

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US70.85 cents, 54.64 Pence Sterling, 79.92 Yen and 61.79 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron ore futures are pointing to 0.7 per cent gain
Gold dropped $3.20 to $US1226 an ounce.
Silver was down 6 cent at $US14.59 an ounce.
Oil added 22 cent to $US69.50 a barrel.

Cryptocurrencies

The three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has dropped 0.6 per cent to US$6483, Ethereum has lost 0.9 per cent to US$204 and EOS was down 1.4 per cent to US$5.38.
 

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