Australian shares are poised to open higher, after Wall St advanced. Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell gave a speech that was seen as a sign that the pace of US rate hikes will slow. US stocks rallied the most in eight months. The Australian dollar leapt up as the American dollar slumped.
Local economic newsThe Australian Bureau of Statistics will release figures for Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure, for September 2018.
They will also release a report on the characteristics of employment, for August later today.
Markets Wall Street closed higher yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.5 per cent higher to 25,366 the S&P 500 added 2.3 per cent to 2,744 and the NASDAQ climbed almost 3 per cent to 7292.
European markets closed mixed yesterday: London’s FTSE fell 0.2 per cent, Paris was flat and Frankfurt was down 0.1 per cent.
Asian markets closed higher, Tokyo’s Nikkei added over 1per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.3 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was up 1.1 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 40 points gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed slightly lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index closing 3 points lower to 5725.
Company newsSoftware solutions company Gentrack Group
(ASX:GTK) have released their financial results for the year to September 30th 2018 showing NPAT to NZ$13.9 million new Zealand dollars up 17 per cent on last year. Revenue is up NZ$104.5 million up 39 per cent on financial year 2017. EBITDA NZ$31 million up 30 per cent on last year. Transaction costs related to the acquisition of Evolve Analytics in June. A final dividend of 8.7 cents per share has been declared taking the full year dividend to 13.7 cents per share. Shares in Gentrack Group
(ASX:GTK) closed 0.3 per cent lower to $6.13 yesterday.
Ex-dividendsALS
(ASX:ALQ) is paying 11 cents 20 per cent franked
Gryphon Capital Income Trust
(ASX:GCI) is paying 0.86 cents unfranked
Gazal
(ASX:GZL) is paying 10 cents fully franked
Technology One
(ASX:TNE) is paying 8.16 cents 75 per cent franked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 8:40AM was buying US73.08 cents, 56.97 Pence Sterling, 83.04Yen and 64.30 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron ore futures are pointing to 1.55 per cent gain
Gold gained $7.80 to $US1227.70 an ounce.
Silver was up 19 cents at $US14.41 an ounce.
Oil fell $1.28 to $US50.28 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesBitcoin has added 13.79 per cent to US$4305, Ethereum has gained 14.47 per cent to US$124 and EOS was up 11.7 per cent to US$3.32.
