Australian shares are poised to edge lower at the open following mixed leads from Wall Street. Tech stocks saw a slide offsetting a rally in financials. Investors are still anxiously awaiting signals from the Federal Reserve as to whether there will be further interest rate cuts. Boeing shares surged pushing up the Dow. On the commodities front, gold and oil have dropped.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2 per cent to close at 26,252, the S&P 500 closed 0.1 per cent lower at 2923 and the NASDAQ fell 0.4 per cent to 7991.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE dropped 1.1 per cent, Paris shed 0.9 per cent and Frankfurt was down 0.5 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.1per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.8 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite closed 0.1 per cent higher.
Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.2 per cent fall.
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 19 points or 0.3 per cent higher at 6502.
Company newsWesfarmers
(ASX:WES) has formally ended its $1.5 billion bid for rare earths group Lynas Corp
(ASX:LYC). On 26 March 2019, Wesfarmers announced that it had made a conditional, non-binding indicative proposal to the Board of Lynas Corporation
(ASX:LYC) to acquire Lynas for $2.25 a share.Yesterday they notified the ASX that it had been unable to progress the proposal and does not intend to pursue it further. Yesterday Lynas received a short term renewal of its licence to operate in Malaysia. Shares in Wesfarmers
(ASX:WES) closed 0.3 per cent higher at $38.90 yesterday.
Reporting Season- Ardent Leisure Group
(ASX:AAD)- BWX Ltd
(ASX:BWX)- Costa Group Holdings
(ASX:CGC)- Coventry Group Ltd
(ASX:CYG)- Goodman Group
(ASX:GMG)- IRESS Ltd
(ASX:IRE)- Mayne Pharma Group
(ASX:MYX)- Pilbara Minerals
(ASX:PLS)- WPP AUNZ Ltd
(ASX:WPP)Ex – DividendArgo Investments
(ASX:ARG) is paying 17 cents fully franked
Citadel Group Ltd
(ASX:CGL) is paying 6 cents fully franked
Coronado Global Resources Inc
(ASX:CRN) is paying 11.5091 cents fully franked
Infomedia Ltd
(ASX:IFM) is paying 2.15 cents unfranked
Ingenia Group
(ASX:INA) is paying 5.8 cents unfranked
IPH Limited
(ASX:IPH) is paying 13 cents 60 per cent franked
Lendlease Group
(ASX:LLC) is paying 30 cents unfranked
Steadfast Group Ltd
(ASX:SDF) is paying 5.3 cents fully franked
Super Retail Group Ltd
(ASX:SUL) is paying 28.5 cents fully franked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying 67.59US cents, 55.16Pence Sterling, 71.93 Yen and 61.01 Euro cents.
Commodities Iron Ore futures suggest a 1.01 per cent gain.
Gold has dropped $8.10 to US$1508 an ounce.
Silver was down $0.14 cents to US$17.15 an ounce.
Oil has dropped $0.29 to US$55.39 a barrel.
