The Australian share market is eyeing a soft start to the second week of March after global markets continued to worry about political tension between Ukraine and Russia and China released disappointing data over the weekend. While the Eurozone’s major markets dropped more than 1 per cent on Friday, Wall Street was supported with a better than expected monthly jobs report at the end of last week. The S&P 500 even rose to a record closing high for the second straight session, marking its fifth record closing high over the past seven sessions.
In the week ahead Australian investors will have housing figures to digest today ahead of domestic jobs data due out on Thursday. Attention will also be on the mining sector today after China’s latest trade figures disappointed.
Chinese economic news
The world’s second largest economy back-flipped to a trade deficit of $US22.98 billion in February from a surplus of $US14.8 billion the same time a year earlier and against expectations of a $US11.9 billion surplus. The General Administration of Customs reports exports dropped 18.1 per cent as imports grew 10.1 per cent over last month which included the Lunar New Year holiday.
US economic news
The American economy added more jobs than expected last month in the same period the nation’s unemployment rate ticked higher. The Labor Department reports US employers added 175,000 jobs to their payrolls in February. The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent last month from 6.6 per cent in January.
Global markets
Despite notching up another weekly gain Wall Street closed mixed on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lifted 31 points to close at 16,453, the S&P 500 firmed 1 point to a new record close of 1,878 but the NASDAQ slipped 16 points to close at 4,336.
European markets ended lower at the end of last week: London's FTSE 100 Index dropped 76 points, France's CAC 40 dropped 51 points and Germany's DAX dropped 192 points.
Asian markets ended mixed at the end of last week: Japan’s Nikkei added 139 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 42 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 2 points.
The Australian share market started the first week of March higher as it edges toward six-year highs: The S&P/ASX 200 Index added 16 points on Friday, extending the weekly gain of 56.5 points to finish at 5,462. On the futures market the SPI is 16 points lower.
Currencies
The Australian dollar at 8:20am was buying $US0.9047, 54.1 Pence Sterling, 93.27 Yen and 65.22 Euro cents.
Economic news due out today
The Australian Bureau of Statistics: Housing finance figures for December and residential property price indexes for the December quarter
National Australia Bank: Monthly business survey for January
Company news
Agribusiness Elders Limited
(ASX:ELD) says its exit from forestry is now largely complete. The announcement came after Agricultural Land Trust
(ASX:AGJ) completed a restructure which saw Elders surrender leases. Following these transactions Elders will save about $6 million in annual rent and outgoings. The company says it remains in negotiations for a small number of rural property leases. Shares in Elders gained 8.7 per cent before the announcement was released to end the week at $0.125.
Wellcom Group Limited
(ASX:WLL) has acquired a US content creation business named thelab for $7.2 million as it charges ahead with its US expansion. Wellcom is a provider of content creation and management services across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and the UK. Executive Chairman Wayne Sidwell says the acquisition will provide the company with direct exposure to large multinational brands in the US where it plans to boost penetration of its software, named Knowledgewell. Shares in Wellcom Group dropped 2.03 per cent before the announcement was released to end the week at $2.89.
Commodities
Following a weekly gain of more than $US20 the price of gold has lost $13.16 to $US1,338.20 an ounce for the April contract on Comex.
Silver has eased $0.65 to $20.93 for May.
Copper has declined $0.13 to $3.08 a pound.
Oil has lifted $1.02 to $US102.58 a barrel for April light crude in New York.
