The Australian share market is poised to open lower following soft leads from US markets. The S&P 500 closed in the red after struggling to keep its gains in early session. Technology stocks across the indexes led the losses towards session close as rotation out of tech stocks into bank shares continues. Investors responded to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who provided the Senate Banking Committee an optimistic update on the economy's recovery from the pandemic. Oil prices rebounded 6 per cent from Tuesday's decline boosting energy stocks after a grounding of a ship in the Suez Canal. The incident caused concerns that it could delay crude shipments. US treasury yields slipped for the fourth day around the rising number of Covid-19 cases in Europe.
Local economic newsThe Australian Bureau of Statistics is set to release three reports.
The first report is the National Accounts, Finance & Wealth for the December quarter. This includes numbers on household wealth, holding of shares in super and pension funds and cash by private companies.
The second report is the Business Conditions & Sentiment for March which includes numbers on changes in revenue, operating expenses and employees in January and February.
The third report is on labour force numbers for February.
MarketsWall Street closed mostly lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed flat at 32,420, the S&P 500 shed 0.55 per cent to 3,889 and the NASDAQ closed 2 per cent lower at 12,962.
European markets closed mixed, London’s FTSE added 0.2 per cent, Paris gained 0.03 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.4 per cent lower.
Asian markets closed lower, Tokyo’s Nikkei shed 2.04 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 2.03 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite dipped 1.3 per cent.
Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.2 per cent fall.
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 0.5 per cent higher at 6,779.
Company newsSuncorp
(ASX:SUN) provided an update at 4pm yesterday (EST) reporting that the company received over 5,400 claims across all three states. Of the total claims received to date, around 80 per cent are in NSW with over 85 per cent of total claims relating to property damage. They expect the claim numbers to increase in the coming days. Shares in Suncorp
(ASX:SUN) closed 1.1 per cent higher at $9.99.
Ex-Dividends- Full list:Boom Logistics
(ASX:BOL) is paying 0.5 cents unfranked
BSA Limited
(ASX:BSA) is paying 0.5 cents fully franked
Consolidated Ops Gp
(ASX:COG) is paying 0.122 cents fully franked
Cochlear Limited
(ASX:COH) is paying $1.15 unfranked
GLG Corp Ltd
(ASX:GLE) is paying 1.3 cents unfranked
Gold Road Resources Ltd
(ASX:GOR) is paying 1.5 cents fully franked
Healius
(ASX:HLS) is paying 6.5 cents fully franked
Lindsay Australia
(ASX:LAU) is paying 1.2 cents fully franked
Mastermyne Group Ltd
(ASX:MYE) is paying 0.75 cents fully franked
Service Stream
(ASX:SSM) is paying 2.5 cents fully franked
Seven Group Holdings
(ASX:SVM) is paying 23 cents fully franked
Vita Group Ltd
(ASX:VTG) is paying 5.6 cents fully franked
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:50 AM was buying 75.89 US cents, 55.44 Pence Sterling, 82.51 Yen and 64.25 Euro cents.
CommoditiesGold has gained $8.20 to US $1736 an ounce.
Silver was down $0.06 to US $25.16 an ounce.
Oil was down $2.40 to US $58.33 a barrel.
Iron ore futures are suggesting a 3.4 per cent rise.
