The Australian share market is tipped to start the week of trade slightly lower, as local stocks prove their resilience in the midst of reporting season, after Wall Street fell into the red on Friday.
The Dow dropped to its biggest weekly slide in over a year on weaker than expected economic data.
US economic news
US housing starts rose 5.9 per cent in July. The result missed economists’ predictions for an 8.9 per cent rise.
Meatime, US consumers began August feeling less positive about the economy. The consumer sentiment index fell 5.1 points to 80, well below what was expected.
Currencies
The Australian dollar regained some ground against the greenback after that batch of data cast doubt over the economic recovery in the US. At 7.30am the Aussie was buying $US91.89 cents, 58.84 Pence Sterling, 89.72 Yen and 68.92 Euro cents.
Figures
Wall Street was in negative territory: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 31 points to close at 15,081, the S&P500 fell 5 points to close at 1,656 and the Nasdaq dipped 3 points to close at 3,603.
European markets ended higher on Friday: London’s FTSE added 17 points, Paris jumped by 31 points and Frankfurt gained 16 points.
Asian markets had a wild session - particularly in China, as the Shanghai Composite shot up as much as 5.6 per cent during the day before closing down 0.6 per cent. The spike was attributed to problems in the arbitrage system of Shanghai-based brokerage firm China Everbright Securities. The Shanghai Stock Exchange says it’s investigating the issue. China’s Shanghai Composite fell 13 points,Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 103 points and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 21 points.
The Australian share market ended last week higher, despite dropping on Friday. The S&P/ASX 200 index fell 39 points, narrowing the weekly gain of 6 points to finish at 5,114. On the futures market the SPI is 7 points down.
Economic news
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will today release its new motor vehicle sales figures for July
Company news
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited
(ASX:BEN) will report its full year results today. Analysts are tipping a healthy lift in profit to about $347 million, up from $323 million last year. Shares in Bendigo and Adelaide Bank dropped 2.21 per cent on Friday to close at $10.60.
BlueScope Steel Limited
(ASX:BSL) will reveal how its transformation is progressing today when it reveals its full year results. In February, the steelmaker said it expected to return to profit in the second half after significantly narrowing its loss in the first half. Shares in Bluescope lifted 1.11 per cent on Friday to close at $5.47.
Commodities
Gold is up $7.50 to $US1,371 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is up $0.39 to $23.32 for September. Copper is up $0.03 at $3.36 a pound. Oil is up $0.13 at US$107.46 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
