The Australian sharemarket looks set to open flat this morning following a rocky session on Wall Street. US sharemarkets closed higher on Wednesday after fluctuating between positive and negative trade. A strong batch of earnings reports helped to ease investor concerns about slowing global growth. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose on the back of strong quarterly earnings from companies like IBM, United Technologies and Procter & Gamble.
US economic newsThe house price index rose by 0.4 per cent in November beating a forecast of 0.2 per cent.
Australian economic newsWe can expect the December jobs report from the ABS
Global marketsWall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7 per cent to close at 24,576 the S&P 500 gained 0.2 per cent to close at 2639 and the NASDAQ was up 0.1 per cent to close at 7026.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE shed 0.9 per cent, Paris dropped 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt lost by 0.2 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei has shed 0.1 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.01 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite rose 0.1 per cent.
Returning home, the SPI futures are eyeing a fall of 3 points, yesterday the Australian share market closed 15 point lower at 5,844.
Company newsNew Zealand Coal company, Bathurst Resources
(ASX:BRL) has again bumped up its earnings guidance from $92 to $105 million. The increase comes on the back of rising export coal prices which continue to outperform expectations. Shares in Bathurst Resources
(ASX:BRL) closed 4.2per cent lower at 12 cents yesterday.
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7.45 AM was buying 71.43 US cents, 54.67 Pence Sterling, 78.29 Yen and 62.76 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron Ore futures are 1.3 per cent higher.
Gold has lost $1 to US$1289 an ounce.
Silver has gained $0.04 to US$15.37 an ounce.
Oil has shed $0.21 to US$52.80 a barrel.
