Australian shares look set to open moderately higher this morning after Wall Street posted gains overnight. US sharemarkets rose on the back of corporate earnings, and, ahead of the State of the Union address which will be delivered by Donald Trump later today. Estee Lauder was among the best performers on Tuesday, jumping almost 12 per cent after reporting better-than-expected results. Meantime, Disney shares rose 2 percent in extended trading after the company reported earnings per share and revenue that topped analyst estimate.
MarketsTaking a look at global markets Wall Street closed higher yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7 per cent to close at 25,412, the S&P 500 gained 0.5 per cent to close at 2,738 and the NASDAQ rose 0.7 per cent to close at 7402
European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE added 2.04 per cent, Paris gained 1.7 per cent and Frankfurt rose 1.7 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.2 per cent while and China’s Shanghai Composite was closed.
Returning home, the SPI futures are up 24 points. Yesterday the Australian share market closed 1.95 per cent higher or 115 points lower 6006.
In local economic news today Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe delivers a speech at the National Press Club in Sydney.
Reporting SeasonCimic Group
(ASX:CIM) has already released some bumper results which can be found in the company news section of our website, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
(ASX:CBA), Dexus
(ASX:DXS), Genworth Mortgage Insurance
(ASX:GMA) and Insurance Australia Group
(ASX:IAG) are all due to report earnings today.
Company newsReal Estate Investment trust, BWP Trust
(ASX:BWP) say net profit for the half-year ended 31 December 2018 fell 24 per cent from $103 to $79 million. Revenue lifted 3 per cent on the same time last year to $79 million. The company has declared an interim distribution of 8.93 cents a lift of 2 per cent on the prior corresponding period. Shares in BWP Trust
(ASX:BWP) closed 0.54 per cent higher at $3.71 yesterday.
Ex-DividendsAdvanced Share Registry
(ASX:ASW) is paying 2 cents fully franked
ResMed Inc.
(ASX:RMD) is paying 3.6428 cents unfranked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 8:50 AM was buying 72.34 US cents, 55.86 Pence Sterling, 79.55 Yen and 63.45 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has fallen$0.30 to US$1319 an ounce.
Silver has dropped $0.04 to US$15.85 an ounce.
Oil has lost $0.87 to US$53.69 a barrel.
