The Australian market is set to open slightly lower following mixed leads from Wall Street. US Tech stocks rallied overnight following strong results from Facebook who saw revenue jump 26 per cent, and Microsoft who saw a 14 per cent increase in revenue year on year. US Industrials however dragged on the market. Some of the US earnings season's worst performers yesterday were cigarette maker, Altria who saw net revenues decline almost 8 per cent compared to the prior corresponding quarter. Manufacturing major, 3M also missed the mark, dropping over 12 per cent following a 5 per cent decline in sales year on year and the announcement that there will be some major restructuring within their global workforce. Oil and gold have both fallen as Russian crude exports to Europe have halted and the US signals a tightening of sanctions on Iran. We are expecting a quiet session with low trade volumes today amidst the interrupted trade from the public holidays and as the market awaits impending US growth figures.
Local economic news We are expecting the ABS to release Producer Price Indexes and International Trade Price Indexes for the month of March.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.5 per cent lower at 26,462, the S&P 500 fell 0.04 per cent to close at 2,926 and the NASDAQ gained 0.2 per cent to 8,119.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE fell 0.5 per cent, Paris shed 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt was also down 0.3 per cent.
The Asian markets also closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.5 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite dropped 2.4 per cent.
Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are down 3 points. On Wednesday, the Australian share market closed 63 points (or 0.99 per cent) higher at 6,382.
Company newsMYOB Group's
(ASX:MYO) securities were suspended from trading late Wednesday night. This follows news that the Federal Court of Australia has approved the scheme of arrangement between MYOB and its shareholders. Once implemented, MYOB will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. The court's orders have been lodged with ASIC and the implementation date is 8 May 2019. Shares is MYOB Group
(ASX:MYO) closed 0.3 per cent higher at $3.40.
Ex-dividend Amcor
(ASX:AMC) is paying 16.8 cents unfranked and
MFF Capital Investments
(ASX:MFF) is paying 1.5 cents fully franked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying 70.18 US cents, 54.44 Pence Sterling, 78.35 Yen and 63.04 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has dropped $0.40 to US$1,279 an ounce.
Silver has fallen $0.02 to US$14.97 an ounce.
Oil was down 78 cents to US$65.11 a barrel.
