Australian shares are poised to open higher. It appears investors are cautious ahead of the US mid-term election results which we will see later today. US stocks rose, with materials companies the best performers. Shares came off their highs of the day in afternoon trading as the biggest technology names pared gains. Two-year Treasury yields rose to the highest since 2008. Oil fell to a seven-month low as concerns about a worldwide supply squeeze eased.
US economic newsJob openings edged lower in September to just over 7 million from a record 7.3 million the previous month.
Vacancies remain well above the total level of 6.08 million workers counted as unemployed, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS survey.
Local economic news AiG will release the performance of construction figures for October.
Markets Wall Street closed higher yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7 per cent to close at 25,635, the S&P 500 gained 0.6 per cent as well to 2,755 and the NASDAQ added 0.6 per cent higher at 7376.
European markets closed lower yesterday: London’s FTSE fell 0.9 per cent, Paris fell 0.5 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.1 per cent lower.
Asian markets closed mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 1.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.7 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.2 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 11 points gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 57 points lower to 5875.
Company newsDonor management system Pushpay
(ASX:PPH) delivered on its revenue guidance of between US$21.8 million and US$23.3 million for the quarter ended 30 September 2018, increasing total revenue to US$22.6 million for the period. Operating leverage Pushpay’s net loss improved by US$8.1 million from US$12.5 million for the six months ended 30 September 2017 to US$4.4 million for the six months ended 30 September 2018, an improvement of 64.8 per cent. The company is working towards breakeven on a monthly cash flow basis by 31 December 2018. Pushpay is a finance tools and a custom community app to the faith sector, non-profit organisations and education providers in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Shares in Pushpay
(ASX:PPH) closed 3.25 per cent higher to $3.49 yesterday.
Ex-DividendsBrickworks
(ASX:BKW) is paying 36 cents fully franked.
Probiotec
(ASX:PBP) is paying 5 cents fully franked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying US72.25 cents, 55.16 Pence Sterling, 81.98 Yen and 63.29 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to 1.1per cent fall
Gold fell$4.40 to $US1228 an ounce.
Silver was down 12 cents at $US14.53 an ounce.
Oil dropped $0.91 to $US62.19 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading higher: Bitcoin has added 0.3 per cent to US$6446, Ethereum has added 3.8 per cent to US$216 and XRP was up 11.3 per cent to US$0.54 cents.
