The Australian share market looks set to begin the day of trade in negative territory after a sharp sell-off on Wall Street, following weaker than expected earnings from the Bank of America.
Figures
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 138 points to close at 14,619, the S&P 500 lost 23 points to close at 1,552 and the NASDAQ lost 60 points to close at 3,205.
European markets were also down: London’s FTSE lost 60 points, Paris lost 87 points and Frankfurt lost 180 points.
Asian markets closed mixed: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 102 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 162 and China’s Shanghai Composite closed down by 1 point.
The Australian share market closed just over 1 per cent up, rebounding powerfully after languishing in the red earlier the trading week. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 54 points up to finish at 5,005.
On the futures market the SPI is 33 points lower.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying almost $US1.029 cents, 67.06 Pence Sterling, 101.15 Yen and 79.06 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today - NAB will release its business survey for the March quarter.
Company news
Paladin Energy Limited
(ASX:PDN) revealed an underwhelming set of March quarter results, with production at the uranium miner’s flagship Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia lower than the three previous reporting periods. Production was also 13 per cent below the December quarter, due to problems with the water supply on site. Paladin says the local water supply was impacted by nearby upgrades to the system ahead of a rival uranium mine being built close to the mine. Shares in Paladin Energy closed 3.12 per cent down yesterday at $0.775.
Leighton Holdings Limited
(ASX:LEI) company secretary and general counsel Richard Willcock has resigned. The international contractor thanked Mr Willcock for his contribution but gave no reason for his resignation. The resignation comes one month after Chairman Stephen Johns, along with two non-executive directors resigned from the board of the company. Shares in Leighton Holdings closed 0.99 per cent higher at $19.44.
Commodities
Gold is down $4.70 to $US1,383 an ounce for the June contract on Comex. Silver is down $0.32 to $23.31 for May. Copper is down $0.12 at $3.19 a pound. Oil is down $2.04 at $US86.68 a barrel for May light crude in New York.
