The Australian share market is likely to regain some ground this morning, after US stocks closed mostly higher on better-than-expected results from US retailers.
Global investors are waiting for the Federal Reserve to release the minutes of its latest policy-setting committee's meeting later this week, with Asian and European markets diving on investor anxiety about when the Fed will scale back its bond buying program.
But our market is likely to be more focused on the raft of earnings reports out today, with all eyes on BHP Billiton Limited
(ASX:BHP) shares after the mining giant announced a weaker than expected full year profit result after the market close yesterday.
Figures
Wall Street was subdued: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 8 points to close at 15,003, the S&P 500 added 6 points to close at 1,652 and the NASDAQ gained 25 points to close at 3,614.
European markets dipped: London’s FTSE lost 12 points, Paris fell by 55 points and Frankfurt was down by 66 points.
Asian stock markets tumbled, with markets in Japan falling to an eight-week low amid uncertainty over when the US Federal Reserve plans to taper its stimulus program .
Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped 362 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng plunged 493 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 13 points.
The Australian share market has finished 0.7 per cent lower yesterday amid a slew of company reports. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 34 points down to finish at 5,078. On the futures market the SPI is 13 points up.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:30AM was buying $US90.74 cents, 57.93 Pence Sterling, 88.25 Yen and 67.63 Euro cents.
Economic news
The Westpac-Melbourne Institute will release its Leading Indexes of Economic Activity today.
Company news
Woodside Petroleum Limited
(ASX:WPL) will reveal its first half result today. The report comes after the oil and gas producer’s second-quarter production dipped following planned maintenance works and an unscheduled outage at its Pluto LNG plant. It also comes hot on the heels of the company’s recommendation that the Browse Joint Venture participants use floating liquefied natural gas technology as the development concept to commercialize the three Browse gas fields off Western Australia. Shares in Woodside were flat yesterday at $38.70.
Suncorp Group Limited
(ASX:SUN) will release its full year results today after announcing a higher than expected dividend payout last month. The insurance company expects net profit from core businesses to be between $1.21 billion to $1.25 billion, up from $1.03 billion last year and at the upper end of market expectations. Shares in Suncorp dropped 0.48 per cent yesterday to $12.41
Ex-dividend
Domino's Pizza Enterprises Limited
(ASX:DMP) will pay 15.4 cents per share fully franked
HFA Holdings Limited
(ASX:HFA) will pay 3.29 cents per share fully franked
STW Communications Group Limited
(ASX:SGN) will pay 3.3 cents per share fully franked
Commodities
Gold hit a two-month high, rising $6.90 to $US1,373 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is down $0.10 to $23.07 for September. Copper is up $0.01 at $3.34 a pound. Oil is down $2.14 at US$105.96 a barrel for September light crude in New York.
