The local sharemarket is set for a weak start this morning after stocks tumbled on Wall Street when Donald Trump called off talks on a new economic relief stimulus package. After being up 206 points in morning trade, the Dow Jones index ended 376 points down with shares in Boeing sinking almost 7 per cent and the FANG stocks all declining more than 2 per cent. Meantime last night’s budget will be front of mind for investors this morning as they digest the $300 billion in stimulus measures handed down by the Morrison government.
The Federal BudgetThe Federal Government has pledged $17.8 billion worth of tax cuts in its 2020 Budget, the meat of which is aimed squarely at low to middle income earners.
Low and middle-income earners will pay up to $2745 less tax
Additional $1 billion to the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, meaning more new properties will be built.
Tradies are set to see the windfall of the government’s HomeBuilder program, which provides eligible owner-occupiers with a grant of $25,000 to build a new home or to complete extensive renovations.
$14 billion for road and rail infrastructure projects, meaning an additional 40,000 jobs on work sites across the country.
Businesses with a turnover of up to $5 billion to deduct the full cost of eligible depreciable assets of any value.
Regional package of $550 million has been announced to help farmers and those in Australia’s regions to recover from the financial effects of COVID-19.
$240.4 million towards developing more employment opportunities for women
MarketsWall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.3 per cent to 27,773 the S&P 500 fell 1.4 per cent to 3361 and the NASDAQ closed 1.6 per cent lower at 11,155.
European markets closed higher, London’s FTSE added 0.1 per cent, Paris gained 0.5 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.6 per cent higher.
In Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei closed 0.5 per cent higher, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.9 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was closed.
Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to 0.3 per cent fall. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 0.3 per cent higher at 5962.
Company newsOnline travel booking company Serko
(ASX:SKO) has kicked off its NZ$10 million non underwritten share purchase plan ("SPP"). It comes on the back of the company’s successful institutional bookbuild early this month, which was well supported and oversubscribed. The total size of the placement is NZ$47.5 million. Shares in Serko
(ASX:SKO) closed 1.79 per cent higher at $4.54 yesterday.C
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:50 AM was buying 71.04 US cents, 55.24 Pence Sterling, 75.08 Yen and 60.56 Euro cents.
Commodities Gold has lost $30 to US$1890 an ounce.
Silver was down $1.09 to US$23.47 an ounce.
Oil was up $0.95 to US$40.17 a barrel.
