Australian shares are set to open higher this morning after US stocks rose yesterday when President Donald Trump says he'll push forward with plans to increase tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods. He is meeting with China's leader this weekend in Argentina. All three US benchmarks were in positive trade. The Australian dollar is up slightly. On the commodities front gold has fallen $8 and oil is up a small amount.
Local economic news The Australian Bureau of statistics will release figures for Construction Work Done, in September this year.
MarketsWall Street closed higher yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.44 per cent higher to 24,749, the S&P 500 added 0.3 per cent to 2,682 and the NASDAQ was up 0.01 per cent to 7083.
European markets closed lower yesterday: London’s FTSE fell 0.3 per cent, Paris dropped 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt was down 0.4 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.2 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 0.04 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 5 points gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed higher with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 57 points higher to 5728
Company newsBiotechnology cancer company Immutep
(ASX:IMM) has a new patent entitled 'Combined Preparations for the Treatment of Cancer or Infection' by the European Patent Office. The patent protects Immutep's intellectual property relating to combined preparations comprising its lead product candidate eftilagimod and a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor. The patent expiry date is 8 January 2036. This new patent is significant because it covers the combination of active ingredients. Shares in Immutep
(ASX:IMM) closed 5 per cent lower to 3.8 cents yesterday.
Ex-DividendsCivmec
(ASX:CVL) is paying 0.595 cents fully franked
GrainCorp
(ASX:GNC) is paying 8 cents fully franked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 8:40AM was buying US72.28 cents, 56.78 Pence Sterling, 82.24 Yen and 64.00 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to 0.42 per cent gain.
Gold fell $8 to $US1221 an ounce.
Silver was down 11 cents at $US14.23 an ounce.
Oil gained $0.19 cents to $US51.82 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesBitcoin has added 1.1 per cent to US$3769.73, Ethereum has gained 0.03 per cent to US$106.84 and EOS was down 6.1 per cent to US$2.95.
