US tech stocks rally: Aus shares to open higher

Australian shares look set to push higher at the open following a tech rally on Wall Street with investors looking forward to a big week of earnings. More than a quarter of the S&P 500 companies report quarterly results this week including Facebook, Alphabet and Amazon, which all closed higher yesterday on hopes for better-than-expected earnings.

Meantime, Oil prices rose more than 1 per cent on Monday, as investors worried about possible supply disruptions in the Middle East after Iran’s seizure of a British tanker last week.

 Local economic news

Today the Reserve Bank’s, Assistant Governor, Christopher Kent provides a speech at the Bloomberg address in Sydney.

Markets

Wall Street closed higher yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1 per cent to 27,172, the S&P 500 added 0.3 per cent to close at 2985 and the NASDAQ rose 0.7 per cent to 8204.

European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE added 0.1 per cent, Paris rose 0.3 per cent and Frankfurt was up 0.2 per cent.

Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.4 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 1.3 per cent.

Returning home the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.2 per cent rise.

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 9 points or 0.14 per cent lower at 6691.

Company news

Investment fund, WAM Leaders (ASX:WLE) has declared a record fully franked dividend of 3 cents per share, an increase of 20 per cent on last year. The record dividend was achieved after a 19 per cent increase in the investment portfolio in the six months to June. The final dividend brings the record fully franked dividend to 5.65 cents per share representing a dividend yield of 5.1 per cent. The company achieved operating profit after tax of $72 million for the 2019 financial year. Shares in WAM Leaders (ASX:WLE) closed 0.86 per cent lower at $1.15 yesterday.

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying 70.35 US cents, 56.39 Pence Sterling, 75.89 Yen and 62.77 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron Ore futures suggest a 1.1 per cent fall.
Gold has fallen $1.20 to US$1426 an ounce.
Silver was up $0.19 to US$16.39 an ounce.
Oil added $0.46 to US $56.22 a barrel.