The Australian share market is set for a solid start after US stocks jumped on news Senate leaders struck a deal to reopen the government and avoid an imminent debt default.
Wall Street held early gains after US Senate leaders announced a compromise that would temporarily raise the nation's debt ceiling and fully reopen the government.
The agreement was reached just a day before the US Treasury was expected to exhaust its ability to borrow more money.
Currencies
The Australian dollar has leapt a quarter of a US cent higher on that last-minute deal in the US. At 8:20AM the Aussie was buying $US95.62 cents, 59.96 Pence Sterling, 94.46 Yen and 70.67 Euro cents.
Figures
Wall Street was buoyant: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 206 points to close at 15,374, the S&P 500 added 23 points to close at 1,722 and the NASDAQ jumped 45 points to close at 3,839.
In Europe, stocks touched five-year highs on that breakthrough in the US. London’s FTSE lifted by 22 points, Paris lost 12 points and Frankfurt added 42 points.
Asian markets were mixed, as Japan's Nikkei Stock Average added 0.2 per cent, and China's Shanghai Composite shed 1.8 per cent as investors grew cautious ahead of economic growth data to be released tomorrow. Tokyo’s Nikkei added 26 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 108 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 40 points.
The Australian share market closed slightly higher yesterday as the US Senate closed in on a debt deal. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 4 points up to finish at 5,263. On the futures market the SPI is 20 points higher.
Economic news
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release its international merchandise imports data for September and NAB will put out its business survey for the September quarter.
Company news
Santos Limited
(ASX:STO) will release its third quarter production report, as analysts watch to see if production growth is on track to meet its target increase of 6 per cent on year. Significant contributors to this growth are local LNG projects including the GLNG joint venture project, Darwin LNG and the proposed Bonaparte LNG project. Shares in Santos fell 1.07 per cent yesterday to close at $14.73.
Reject Shop Limited
(ASX:TRS) says it expects its profit to grow as it continues its aggressive rollout of new stores.The company opened 41 stores in the past financial year and has opened another 33 since the beginning of July. Shares in the Reject Shop lifted 0.52 per cent yesterday to close at $17.55.
Ex-dividend
Commodities
Gold is up $9.10 to $US1,282 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is up $0.17 to $21.36 for December. Copper is flat at $3.31 a pound. Oil is up $1.08 at US$102.29 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
