Australian shares are poised to open lower this morning following on from weak leads on Wall Street ahead of trade talks between the US and China later this week. US equities fell by the most since March as investors are cautious over President Donald Trump’s threat to increase tariffs on billions of dollars of imports from China. Oil dropped and the yen strengthened.
MarketsWall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.8 per cent lower at 25,965, the S&P 500 fell 1.7 per cent to close at 2884 and the NASDAQ lost almost 2 per cent to7964.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE Paris and Frankfurt all dropped 1.6 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 1.5 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.7 per cent.
Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are down 48 points. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 12 points (0.2 per cent) higher at 6296.
Company news Lithium company Lepidico
(ASX:LPD) will merge with Desert Lion to create a global leader in the development of lithium chemicals from Lepidolite. Desert Lion Energy is a lithium development company based in Canada focused on building Namibia’s first large-scale lithium mine. In other news from the company Lepidico
(ASX:LPD) has entered into a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gulf Fluor, an established Abu Dhabi based industrial chemicals company. This agreement is for the supply of sulphuric acid, the provision of land to construct the Phase 1 Plant Project; and the marketing of the plant. Gulf Fluor owns and operates a state of the art industrial chemical facility in Abu Dhabi that includes a 140,000 tonne per year sulphuric acid plant. Shares is Lepidico
(ASX:AMC) were last traded at 3.8 cents on the 3rd of May.
Ex-dividendResMed
(ASX:RMD) is paying 3.70 cents unfranked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying 70.15US cents, 53.67 Pence Sterling, 77.36 Yen and 62.68 Euro cents.
CommoditiesIron Ore futures suggest a 1.0 per cent fall
Gold has gained $1.90 to US$1286 an ounce.
Silver was flat at US$14.93 an ounce.
Oil was down $0.81 to US$61.44 a barrel.
