Following positive leads, the Australian share market looks set to open higher after a tough day in the red yesterday. Despite continued jitters from the unrest in Crimea, US equities markets made gains on the back of positive retail sales figures and an earnings upgrade from Citigroup.
Global Markets
Wall Street closed up yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 147 points to close at 16,173 the S&P 500 added 15 points to close at 1,831 and the NASDAQ added 23 points to close at 4,023.
European markets closed up: London’s FTSE gained 22 points, Paris gained 19 points and Frankfurt is up 24 points.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 50 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 35 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite added 1 point.
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 70 points down to finish at 5,359. On the futures market the SPI is 25 points up.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US0.9422 cents, 56.36 Pence Sterling, 96.02 Yen and 68.21 Euro cents.
Economic news
The Reserve Bank of Australia will release its latest Monthly board meeting minutes.
Company news
Rio Tinto Limited
(ASX:RIO) will hold their London annual general meeting today.
The meeting will coincide with the much anticipated release of their first quarter production report and it will kick off a week of output reports by the iron ore majors. Share in Rio Tinto are down by 1.33 per cent and are trading at $63.26.
Toro Energy Limited
(ASX:TOE) has begun drilling at its Wiluna Uranium Project in Western Australia.
The 16,000 metre drilling program is the largest the uranium explorer has undertaken and will encompass the drilling of some 1,600 holes. Shares in Toro Energy are down by 1.39 per cent to $0.07.
Commodities
Gold is up $8.50 to $US1,327.50 an ounce for the June contract on Comex.
Silver is up $0.06 to $20.01 for May.
Copper is up $0.01 at $3.05 a pound.
Oil is up $0.31 at US$104.05 a barrel for May light crude in New York.
