Wall St slips, FedEx shares drop on profit forecast: Aus shares to open lower

The Australian sharemarket is set to open lower after stocks slipped on Wall Street. In the US stocks pared gains late in trading and Wall Street fell short of extending its winning streak to six days. The S&P500 and Nasdaq hit all-time intraday highs on optimism about global growth during the session. But investors were cautious with the US House of Representatives voting on two articles of impeachment against US President Donald Trump. Also limiting gains was a 10 per cent fall in FedEx's shares after the company lowered its 2020 profit forecast. Meantime, Facebook helped to boost the S&P500 index as Deutsche Bank raised its price target on the stock.

Local economic news

ABS releases the June quarter population estimates together with the November labour market data.

Markets

To the figures from around the globe: Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.1 per cent lower at 28,239, the S&P 500 fell 0.04 per cent to 3191 and the NASDAQ added 0.1 per cent to 8828.

European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE added 0.2 per cent, Paris fell 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt dropped 0.5 per cent.

Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 0.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.2 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite closed 0.2 per cent lower.

Returning home the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.2 per cent fall.

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 4 points or 0.1 per cent higher at 6851.

Company news

Mirvac Group (ASX: MGR) together with John Holland have been selected to deliver Sydney Metro’s station development at Waterloo in collaboration with the NSW Government. The project has an anticipated end value of $800 million, and will be completed over the next five to six years. Shares in Mirvac Group (ASX:MGR) closed 0.6 per cent lower at $3.20 yesterday.

Ex-Dividends

Kelly Partners Group (ASX:KPG) is paying 1.21 cents fully franked

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 8:35 AM was buying 68.53 US cents, 52.41 Pence Sterling, 75.11 Yen and 61.67 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron Ore has lost 0.9 per cent to US$93.20.
Iron Ore futures are flat.
Gold has lost $1.70 to US$1479 an ounce.
Silver has dropped $0.02 to US$17.05 an ounce.
Oil has fallen $0.03 to US$60.97 a barrel.