Wall St extends gains after US Mexico tariffs avoided: Aus shares to open higher

Australian shares are set to open the week higher following positive leads from Wall Street and strong prices for base metals and iron ore. Stocks rose on Wall St extending last weeks big gains after the US reached an agreement with Mexico on tariffs, easing trade concerns. Shares of auto makers GM and Ford pushed higher on the news. Meanwhile US listed shares of BHP and Rio were also stronger which may see local miners gain momentum today.

Local economic news

There is a raft of economic news out this week today we can expect NAB's Business survey (May), on Wednesday Overseas arrivals/departures (April) the Monthly reading of consumer confidence speeches by officials Reserve Bank And Credit/Debit card lending (April) and finally on Thursday Employment data (May).

Markets

To the figures from around the globe: Wall Street closed higher yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3 per cent to 26,063, the S&P 500 added 0.5 per cent to close at 2887 and the NASDAQ rose 1.1 per cent to 7823.

European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE added 0.6 per cent, Paris rose0.3 per cent and Frankfurt was closed.

Asian markets closed higher,Tokyo’s Nikkei added 1.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 2.3 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.9 per cent.

Returning home, the SPI futures are up 21 points. On Friday, the Australian share market closed 61 points or almost 1 per cent higher at 6444.

Company news

Contact Energy (ASX:CEN) has today announced an investment of $10.7 million over three financial years to acquire a 49.9 per cent stake in Simply Energy, a specialist Wellingtonbased electricity solutions business which provides tailored solutions for commercial and industrial energy clients. Contact will use existing credit facilities to fund the investment, which is expected to complete by the end of June 2019. Shares in Contact Energy closed 0.56 per cent lower to $7.05 on Friday

Ex-Div

Transmetro Corp. Ltd (ASX:TCO) is paying 10 cents fully franked

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying 69.59US cents, 54.87Pence Sterling, 75.47 Yen and 61.53 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron Ore futures suggest a 3 per cent gain.
Gold has fallen $14.00 to US$1332an ounce.
Silver was down $0.35toUS$14.69 an ounce.
Oil dropped $0.57 toUS$53.42a barrel.