The Australian share market is expected to continue making losses today, despite US stocks ending a volatile week of trade mostly higher.
Currencies
The Australian dollar weakened slightly overnight as the greenback advanced on last week's news that the US central bank may begin to pull back on QE. At 7:20AM the Aussie was buying $US92.26 cents, 59.96 Pence Sterling, 90.37 Yen and 70.43 Euro cents.
Figures
Wall Street relaxed a little after two days of panic selling over the Federal Reserve’s plans to ease up on its $85 billion per month economic stimulus program: The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 41 points to close at 14,799, the S&P500 gained 4 points to close at 1,592 and the Nasdaq lost 7 points to close at 3,357.
European markets lost traction with traders still reeling from the news out of the US and European Union finance ministers failing to secure an agreement on how best to downsize or close banks without asking taxpayers to bail them out: London’s FTSE lost 43 points, Paris fell by 41 points and Frankfurt dived by 139 points.
Asian markets were mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 216 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 120 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite fell by 10 points.
The Australian share market finished the week of trade lower. Across the boards, the S&P/ASX 200 index lost 20 points on Friday, extending the weekly fall of 53 points to end the trading week at 4,739.
On the futures market the SPI is 33 points down.
Company news
Echo Entertainment Group Limited
(ASX:EGP) has unveiled its $1.1 billion plan for what it calls a "world first" resort linking harbor precincts.
Echo, which owns the Star Casino in Sydney, and Crown Limited
(ASX:CWN) have now submitted rival casino proposals to the New South Wales government. Shares in Echo Entertainment dropped 0.65 per cent on Friday to close at $3.05.
Qantas Airways Limited
(ASX:QAN) and Emirates are set to enter talks this week about rescheduling flights on trans-Tasman routes as the airline partners look to complete the final part of their alliance. The talks are likely to centre on ensuring Qantas and Emirates planes don’t depart or arrive at the same time. Shares in Qantas fell 0.75 per cent on Friday to close at $1.32.
Commodities
Gold is up $5.80 to $US1,292 an ounce for the August contract on Comex. Silver is up $0.14 to $19.96 for July. Copper is up $0.02 at $3.10 a pound. Oil is down $1.45 at US$93.69 a barrel for August light crude in New York.
Ex-dividends
Aurora Global Infrastructure Income Trst
(ASX:AIB) Aurora Property Buy-Write Income Trust
(ASX:AUP) Australian Social Infrastructure Fund
(ASX:AZF) Trustee for Armstrong Jones Office Fund
(ASX:IOF) Shopping Cntrs Austrls Prprty Gp Re Ltd
(ASX:SCP)
