Following flat leads overnight, the Australian share market looks set to open slightly lower.
Stocks on Wall St have receded after a week of record highs with the US government’s monthly jobs report due out tonight.
Global Markets
Wall Street closed flat yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost half a point to close at 16,573, the S&P 500 lost 2 points to close at 1,889 and the NASDAQ lost 39 points to close at 4,238.
European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE lost 10 points, Paris gained 18 points and Frankfurt gained 5 points.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 126 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 41 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 15 points.
The Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 7 points up to finish at 5,410. On the futures market the SPI is 6 points down.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US0.9233 cents, 55.63 Pence Sterling, 95.93 Yen and 67.3 Euro cents.
Company news
Heavy rain has forced St. Barbara Limited
(ASX:SBM) to temporarily shut down its gold mining operations in the Solomon Islands. The Gold Ridge Operations were inundated, receiving the areas average monthly rainfall within 36 hours. A section of haul road was damaged and the access road has been closed. Shares in St Barbara closed 5.66 per cent up yesterday to finish at 0.28 before the announcement was made.
Cazaly Resources Limited
(ASX:CAZ) and Vector Resources Limited
(ASX:VEC) have announced that Anglo American Exploration Pty Ltd have withdrawn from the Earaheedy Joint Venture. The initial agreement had allowed for Anglo American to complete an initial “proof of concept” drilling program. The joint venture iron project operates north of Wiluna in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Shares in Cazaly Resources closed 1.32 per cent down yesterday to finish at 0.075 before the announcement was made.
Commodities
Gold is down $6.20 to $US1,285 an ounce for the June contract on Comex.
Silver is down $0.25 to $19.80 for May.
Copper is down $0.02 at $3.03 a pound.
Oil is up $0.67 at US$100.29 a barrel for May light crude in New York.
Ex Dividends
Austbrokers Holdings Limited
(ASX:AUB) 12 * 100
