Rollercoaster session on Wall Street: Aus shares set for flat start

Market Reports

by Anna Napoli

Following weak leads from US markets, the Australian share market looks set to open flat. Stocks on Wall Street had a roller coaster session on Tuesday as fears about slowing earnings growth rattled investors. Caterpillar and 3M both reported quarterly results that missed the mark, but the market did manage to recover most of its losses in late trade, as investors backed McDonald's and Procter and Gamble . US treasury prices were higher as investors flocked to safe-haven bonds amid the sell off.

On the commodities front, Oil prices fell more than 4 percent on Tuesday, pressured by stock market weakness and vows by top oil exporter Saudi Arabia to meet the demands of the world's oil consumers. Meantime, iron ore was up around half a percent.

Local economic news
The Department of Jobs and Small Business releases its Monthly Internet Vacancy report.

Markets

To the figures from around the globe: Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5 per cent to close at 25 191 the S&P 500 lost 0.6 per centto close at 2741 and the NASDAQ lost 0.4 per cent to close at 7438

European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE dropped 1.2 per cent, Paris lost 1.7 per cent and Frankfurt retreated 2.2 per cent.

Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 2.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 3.1 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite fell  2.3 per cent.

Back home the SPI futures are pointing to a flat start. Yesterday the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 62 points or 1.1 per cent lower at 5843.

Company news

CIMIC Group (ASX:CIM) has announced that its nine-month net profit after tax increased 13 per cent on the same time last year to A$564 million. Meantime, revenues grew 11 percent from last year to A$10.7 billion, with all operating companies contributing to the gains. The engineering services company reported stable EBIT, PBT and NPAT margins of 7.7 per cent, 7.2 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively. Looking ahead, the company confirmed its guidance for fiscal 2018, expecting net profit after tax in the range of A$720 million to A$780 million, subject to market conditions. Shares in CIMIC Group (ASX:CIM) closed 1.6 per cent higher to $46.96 yesterday

Ex-dividends

Acorn Capital Investment Fund (ASX:ACQ) is paying 3.5 cents fully franked
Bank of Queensland (ASX:BOQ) is paying 38 cents fully franked
I Synergy Group (ASX:IS3) is paying 0.4 cents unfranked and
Regional Express Holdings (ASX:REX) is paying 8 cents fully franked

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying 70.89 US cents, 54.61 Pence Sterling, 79.69 Yen and 61.81 Euro cents.

Commodities

Gold has gained $8.80 to US$1233 an ounce.
Silver has gained $0.17 to US$14.76 an ounce.
Oil has lost $3.27 to US$66.09 a barrel.
Iron ore futures are flat

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin has fallen 0.3 per cent to US$6480, Ethereum gained about 0.1 per cent to US$204, and Eos has gained 0.5 per cent to $5.41.



 

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