The Australian share market is set to slip in early trade amid global investor caution and light trade in the US leading in to the Thanksgiving holiday.
While there were little movements on Wall Street overnight, the Nasdaq closed above 4,000 for the first time since 2000.
US economic news
US investors initially gained confidence after data showed demand for home building permits jumped 6.2 per cent in October to an adjusted annual rate of 1.03 million, the highest level in more than five years.
The S&P Case-Shiller 20 City home-price index for September rose 13.3 per cent on the year, slightly better than expectations.
However the Conference Board's consumer-confidence index for November unexpectedly fell to 70.4 from 71.2 in October. Economists expected the index to show a rise to 73.
Figures
Wall Street was little changed: The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were relatively flat to close at 16,073 and 1,803 respectively and the NASDAQ added 23 points to close at 4,018.
European markets were mostly lower. The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.4 per cent, as investors waited for fresh cues after closing Monday at the second-highest level of the year: London’s FTSE lost 58 points, Paris dropped 24 points and Frankfurt fell by 10 points.
Asian markets were also in negative territory: Tokyo’s Nikkei slipped 104 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite both slipped by 3 points.
The Australian share market saw some slight bank-led gains in afternoon trade yesterday however pulled off the day’s highs to close relatively flat. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 4 points up to finish at 5,357. On the futures market the SPI is 18 points lower.
Currencies
The Australian dollar has yet to find its feet after RBA boss Glenn Stevens last week said he was open to intervening in the foreign exchange market. Our currency continued to slide even after RBA deputy governor Philip Lowe said the threshold for the central bank selling the Aussie is fairly high. At 8:20AM the Aussie was buying $US91.3 cents, 56.31 Pence Sterling, 92.4 Yen and 67.27 Euro cents.
Economic news
The Australian Bureau of Statistics will deliver September construction work figures today, with economists tipping a 0.3 per cent fall.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Housing Industry Association will release their Housing Affordability Index .
Company news
Bank of Queensland Limited
(ASX:BOQ) will hold its annual general meeting today. The update comes after the second tier lender swung to a net profit of $185.8 million in fiscal 2013, a massive turnaround on the $17 million loss it booked last financial year. Shares in BOQ fell 2.38 per cent yesterday to close at $12.33.
Beach Energy Limited
(ASX:BPT) managing director Reg Nelson predicts a sustained spike in natural gas prices in the eastern states will last as long as a decade due to a supply crunch. Mr Nelson says wholesale prices have already risen to the widely forecast $7-$9 per gigajoule, and said they could rise to more than $10 for short-term contracts. Shares in Beach Energy lifted 2.61 per cent yesterday to close at $1.38.
Commodities
Gold is up $0.20 to $US1,241 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is down $0.03 to $19.85 for December. Copper is down $0.01 at $3.21 a pound. Oil is down $0.41 at US$93.68 a barrel for January light crude in New York.
