The Australian share market is set to open relatively flat, as investors look for direction with trading desks on Wall Street closed overnight for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Local investors will instead be looking to equities news, with Primary Health Care, Beach Energy, Retail Food Group and Sundance Resources all scheduled to hold annual general meetings today.
Figures
Wall Street was closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday.
European markets hovered at their recent highs after a European Commission survey found economic sentiment in the euro zone strengthened by 0.8 points to 98.5 in the seventh straight month of gains. London’s FTSE gained 5 points, Paris added 9 points and Frankfurt lifted by 36 points.
Asian markets mostly climbed - with Tokyo hitting a near six-year high - following a Wall Street rally, while the yen sank on comments from a Japanese central banker hinting at further monetary easing: Tokyo’s Nikkei surged 277 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 17 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite added 18 points.
The Australian share market backtracked from the session’s high to finish almost where it started. The S&P/ASX 200 index added just 1 point by session’s end to finish at 5,334. On the futures market the SPI is 2 points higher.
Currencies
The Australian dollar slipped lower after overnight falls in commodity prices put commodity currencies under pressure. At 7:20AM the Aussie was buying $US91.1 cents, 55.76 Pence Sterling, 93.18 Yen and 66.98 Euro cents.
Economic news
The RBA will release October private sector credit figures today. Economists are expecting a 0.3 per cent increase.
Company news
Rio Tinto Limited
(ASX:RIO) will spend $400 million to increase its annual iron ore output in Australia by about 25 per cent. The global miner says it will focus on expanding existing mines to increase its production capacity in the Pilbara region to 360 million tonnes of iron ore a year. Rio says it will save more than $US3 billion by targeting those mines first. Shares in Rio Tinto lifted 0.19 per cent yesterday to close at $64.42.
Goodman Fielder Limited
(ASX:GFF) could close another seven plants in the next two years as part of a plan to boost earnings per share by 6 per cent and lift return on capital to at least 13 per cent. The consumer foods company says it has achieved cost savings of $65 million over the past two years and is on track to reach $100 million in savings by 2015. Shares in Goodman Fielder rose 2.27 per cent to 67.5 cents.
Ex-dividend
Commodities
Gold is up $6.70 to $US1,244.50 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is up $0.05 to $19.68 for December. Copper is up $0.02 at $3.22 a pound. Oil is down $1.38 at US$92.30 a barrel for January light crude in New York.
