The Australian share market is set to head south again today as it moves towards wiping out all of this year's gains, after global markets fell on investor fears about central-bank stimulus and economic growth.
Economic news
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release its unemployment data for May. The figures are expected to show the jobless rate rose from 5.5 per cent to 5.6 per cent, with the economy shedding a forecast 10,000 jobs, according to a survey of economists.
Figures
Wall Street ended a choppy day of trade lower: The Dow Jones Industrial Average continued its volatile triple-digit swings, losing 127 points to take the index below the key 15,000-mark to finish at 14,995, the S&P 500 shed 14 points to close at 1,613 and the NASDAQ lost 37 points to close at 3,400.
European markets were also down: London’s FTSE lost 41 points, Paris was 17 points lower and Frankfurt shed 79 points.
Some Asian markets were closed for the dragon boat festival but Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 28 points.
The Australian share market fell sharply yesterday, dropping 0.7 per cent after a session spent in negative territory. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 33 points down to finish at 4,724.
On the futures market the SPI is 36 points down.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US94.73 cents, 60.45 Pence Sterling, 91.04 Yen and 71.07 Euro cents.
Company news
Santos Limited
(ASX:STO) says it's working closely with NSW regulators to identify and correct practices after the NSW Government launched legal action, claiming it breached its production licence at a coal seam gas site in the state's north. The State Government is claiming the company failed to notify of a spill of untreated water at its site in the Pilliga State Forest and also failed to lodge environmental management reports. Shares in Santos lifted 0.79 per cent yesterday to close at $12.74.
Newcrest Mining Limited
(ASX:NCM) may face legal action for potential breaches of continuous disclosure laws following its news of a massive restructure and $6 billion in writedowns. Law firm Maurice Blackburn is investigating a shareholder class action against Newcrest, but the gold and copper miner has denied it selectively briefed analysts ahead of announcing the writedowns last week, in a formal response to the ASX. Shares in Newcrest continued to slide yesterday, closing down 0.83 per cent to $11.93.
Commodities
Gold is up $15.00 to $US1,392 an ounce for the August contract on Comex. Silver is up $0.15 to $21.80 for July. Copper is up $0.03 at $3.23 a pound. Oil is up $0.50 at $US95.88 a barrel for July light crude in New York.
