The Australian share market is set for a positive start despite mixed leads from wall street overnight, as investors pin their hopes the US government will negotiate a possible budget deal before the end of the year.
US economic news
Payroll processor ADP reported that U.S. private-sector employers added 118,000 jobs in November. That was slightly worse than expected, and smaller than the gain of 157,000 jobs in the previous month. The government will report November job figures on Friday.
Figures
Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 83 points to close at 13,034, the S&P500 added 2 points to close at 1,409 and the Nasdaq lost 23 points to close at 2,974.
European markets closed up: London’s FTSE gained 23 points, Paris was up by 10 and Frankfurt added 19 points.
Asian markets closed up: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 471 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 36 and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 57 points.
The Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 17 points up to finish at 4,520. On the futures market the SPI is 6 points higher.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 8:20AM was buying $US1.046, 65.01 Pence Sterling, 86.25 Yen and 80.03 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is labour force data for November.
Company news News Corporation’s
(ASX:NWS) Australian arm News Limited will foot the tax bill of ConsMedia estimated at about $5.3 million, after the high court ruled in favour of the Australian Taxation Office in a long running court battle. A spokesperson says it was aware of the issue when it acquired ConsMedia in October. The tax payable relates to a capital gain it made after it sold its shares in Crown Limited
(ASX:CWN) in 2002. Shares in News Corp closed 0.08 per cent up yesterday at $24.11.
Wotif.com Holdings Limited’s
(ASX:WTF) newly appointed Chief Executive Scott Blume has signalled the company’s intention to boost its presence in Asia citing significant growth opportunities in the region. The online travel company has several offices across Asia including Singapore and Bangkok. Mr Blume who will officially commence his role in the new year, comes with extensive knowledge of the region, having run an Indonesian travel company and spent 10 years working in Singapore, India and Indonesia. Shares in Wotif closed 0.99 per cent up yesterday at $5.10.
Ex-dividends Two companies are going ex-dividend today and they are: Asian Centre For Liver Diseases
(ASX:AJJ) with an unfranked dividend of 0.3 cents and Technology One Limited
(ASX:TNE) with a partially franked dividend of $3.48.
Commodities
Gold is down $2.00 to $US1,694 an ounce for the February contract on Comex. Silver is up $0.15 to $32.96 for March. Copper is up $0.03 at $3.69 a pound. Oil is down $0.62 at US$87.88 a barrel for January light crude in New York.
