The Australian share market is set to open lower this morning, dragged down by Wall St after shares in New York reversed gains of more than 1 per cent yesterday. The Federal Reserve lifted rates as expected, and policymakers signaled two potential rate hikes next year. China and the US held vice-ministerial level talks on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing trade dispute as they move closer to meeting in January. The two sides spoke by phone according to China’s Ministry of Commerce, and have held several rounds of talks in recent weeks,
Local economic news We can expect to see the Labour Force figures for November today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Markets Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.5 per cent to close at 23,324, the S&P 500 lost 1.5 per cent to close at 2507 and the NASDAQ lost 2.2 per cent to close at 6637.
European markets closed up: London’s FTSE gained 1 per cent, Paris gained 0.5 per cent and Frankfurt gained 0.2 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.2 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 1.1 per cent. SPI futures are pointing to a fall of 28 points. Yesterday the Share market closed 9 point lower at 5,581
Company newsExpense management company Serko
(ASX:SKO) has acquired 100 per cent of the ordinary shares in InterplX Inc, a provider of SaaS expense management software in the United States. InterplX provides business expense management solutions including expense audit, payment processing and receipt processing to a range of organisations including several Fortune 500 clients. The acquisition provides Serko with a North American customer service and technology development capability to support market expansion in the Northern Hemisphere, and augments Serko’s existing global support centres in providing a global 24/7 support footprint. The InterplX suite of solutions includes strategic software assets for Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment, full audit and fraud detection software and capabilities which we expect to be of benefit to Serko’s existing customers. Shares in Serko
(ASX:SKO) closed 3.2 per cent higher to $2.60 yesterday.
Ex-dividendsKelly Partners Group
(ASX:KPG) paying 1.1 cent fully franked.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 8:30AM was buying 71.08 US cents, 56.36 Pence Sterling, 80.02 Yen and 62.49 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron Ore is trading 0.2 per cent higher at $69.15 per tonne. Iron ore futures are pointing to a rise of 0.3 per cent.
Gold has lost $7.20 to US$1246 an ounce.
Silver has lost $0.04 to US$14.66 an ounce.
Oil has gained $0.78 to US$47.38 a barrel.
