The Australian share market looks set for a lacklustre open, after Wall Street pulled back on its record-making gains in a volatile overnight session.
US economic news
That was despite positive US economic news that saw new claims of US unemployment benefits fall to 323,000, well below the 336,000 that was expected.
Figures
Wall Street was in negative territory: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 23 points to close still above 15,000 at 15,083, the S&P 500 shed 6 points to close at 1,627 and the NASDAQ lost 4 points to close at 3,409.
European markets were mixed: London’s FTSE added 9 points, Paris lost 28 points and Frankfurt gained 13 points.
Asian markets were all in the red: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 33 points, Tokyo’s Nikkei shed 94 and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 13 points.
The Australian share market took a breather yesterday, ending the session fairly flat. The S&P/ASX 200 index lost 1 point to finish at 5,198.
On the futures market the SPI is up by 1 point.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar fell sharply in overnight trade, inching closer to parity amid strong gains by the US dollar. The US dollar surpassed the Japanese Yen for the first time in four years, following downward pressure on the currency after the Bank of Japan’s aggressive monetary easing efforts.
At 7:20AM the Aussie was buying $US1.00, 65.35 Pence Sterling, 101.63 Yen and 77.4 Euro cents.
Economic news
The RBA will today release its statement on monetary policy after its surprise decision to lower the cash rate to 2.75 per cent at its May board meeting this week.
Company news
BHP Billiton’s Limited
(ASX:BHP) new chief executive Andrew Mackenzie is promising to improve shareholder returns and focus on productivity as his first order of business, according to media reports. Mr Mackenzie will reportedly spend his first day at the helm of BHP, touring iron ore operations in the Pilbara. While he says the mining giant is looking to improve productivity, there will be no major changes made. Shares in BHP closed 0.7 per cent higher yesterday at $34.54.
Australian Power and Gas Company Limited
(ASX:APK) has revised its guidance, flagging a net loss of up to $5 million, blaming bad debts and difficult wholesale electricity market conditions. Revenue for the full year will come in between $478 and 488 million, up from $364.8 million a year earlier. Earlier this year, it forecast a year to June net profit of as much as $9 million, although this has now been downgraded amid lower energy consumption by customers, margin pressure due to intense market competition and higher provisioning for overdue debt. Shares in Australian Power and Gas Company closed 5.26 per cent higher yesterday at $0.40.
Ex-dividend Australian Leaders Fund Limited
(ASX:ALF) will pay 6 cents per share fully franked.
Commodities
Gold is down $5.10 to $US1,468.60 an ounce for the June contract on Comex. Silver is down $0.02 to $23.91 for July. Copper is down $0.03 at $3.34 a pound. Oil is down $0.23 at $US96.39 a barrel for June light crude in New York.
