US markets have reversed a run of record closing highs with both the DOW Jones and S&P 500 closing in the red overnight.
Local markets looks set to follow, while the Australian dollar nudged the $US0.94c mark closing at $US0.9398 yesterday.
Global Markets Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 101 points to close at 16,614, the S&P 500 lost 9 points to close at 1,889 and the NASDAQ lost 30 points to close at 4,101.
European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE gained 5 points, Paris lost 4 points and Frankfurt gained 4 points.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 20 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 230 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 3 points.
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 2 points down to finish at 5,497. On the futures market the SPI is 23 points down.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US0.9377 cents, 55.95 Pence Sterling, 95.51 Yen and 68.39 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is new motor vehicle sales for April, and the HIA Trades report for March quarter is also due out today.
Company news
WorleyParsons Limited
(ASX:WOR) has won an engineering services contract with the Atlantic Company in Trinidad and Tobago.
The master services agreement is a long-term contract for portfolio management services and it will be led from the engineering services company’s South American location. Shares in WorleyParsons closed 0.18 per cent lower yesterday at $16.42.
Newly listed company Japara Healthcare Limited
(ASX:JHC) has responded to Tuesday’s budget and its adjustments to aged care funding.
The residential aged care provider says the impact of the removal of the payroll tax supplement could be about $4 million by the end of the 2015 financial year. The company cautions that these outcomes are dependent on legislation being passed and the impacts of other reforms. Japara Healthcare started trading in the middle of last month with an issue price of 2.00 and they last traded at $2.61.
Commodities
Gold is up $11.10 to $US1,306 an ounce for the June contract on Comex. Silver is up $0.23 to $19.78 for July. Copper is up $0.02 at $3.17 a pound. Oil is up $0.67 at US$102.37 a barrel for June light crude in New York.
