The Australian share market looks set to ease into the session following weak leads. Wall Street trading volumes stayed soft ahead of a speech from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at an annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole.
Figures
Wall Street started the week mixed: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 33 points to close at 13,125, the S&P500 lost 1 point to close at 1,410 and the Nasdaq added 3 points to close at 3,073.
European markets started the week mixed: London’s FTSE was closed for a public holiday, Paris added 30 points and Frankfurt gained 76 points.
Asian markets closed mixed on Monday: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 81 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 15 and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 36 points.
The Australian share market pulled back from a strong open on Monday to start the week in the red. The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 5 points down at 4,344. On the futures market the SPI is flat.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 8:20AM was buying $US1.036 cents, 65.66 Pence Sterling, 81.63 Yen and 82.94 Euro cents.
Economic news due out today
Housing Industry Association: New home sales figures for July
Company news Shares in Caltex Australia Limited
(ASX:CTX) lost 1.4 per cent yesterday as the oil refiner posted a 74 per cent jump in its first half net profit on a replacement cost basis but a 38 per cent fall in its profit on a historical cost basis.
Shares in Spark Infrastructure Group
(ASX:SKI) closed 0.6 per cent lower after the power provider reported a 40 per cent increase in its first half underlying profit on the back of higher tariffs.
Shares in Patties Foods Limited
(ASX:PFL) lifted 1.6 per cent as the pie maker revealed a 6 per cent lift in its full year net profit, attributing the result to product innovation.
Shares in Newsat Limited
(ASX:NWT) rose 4.7 per cent yesterday after the satellite company said it had boosted its full year net profit by more than 600 per cent and confirmed its Jabiru Satellite program is on track for launch mid-2014.
Commodities
Gold is up $2.70 to $US1,675 an ounce for the December contract on Comex.
Silver is up $0.43 to $31.05 for September.
Copper is down $0.01 at $3.48 a pound.
Oil is down $0.68 at $US95.47 a barrel for October light crude in New York.
Ex-dividends today
