With weak leads coming from Wall street and European markets, the ASX looks set to tip into the red today.
Wall Street followed European markets lower as there were fears that a default by a key Portuguese bank might spread to the rest of the Eurozone.
US markets seemed to shrug off positive jobless claims data which showed that fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week.
Yesterday’s export data out of China for June, missed expectations, but it was still positive and saw stronger growth than the previous period.
Global figures
Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4 per cent to close at 16,915, the S&P 500 lost 0.4 per cent to close at 1,965 and the NASDAQ lost 0.5 per cent to close at 4,396.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE lost 0.7 per cent, Paris lost 1.3 per cent and Frankfurt 1.5 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.3 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.01 per cent.
The Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 12 points up to finish at 5,464. On the futures market the SPI is 18 points down.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US0.9393 cents, 54.84 Pence Sterling, 95.19 Yen and 69.04 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is housing finance for May.
Company news
Graincorp Limited
(ASX:GNC) has bought a 10 per cent stake in Egyptian flour miller Five Star Flour Mills in a deal worth $10 million.
The grain handling company will take earn a seat on Five Star’s board and says there is strong strategic rationale for the move. The company says Five Star is Egypt’s leading private flour miller and that it hopes to provide a more direct connection between grain growers and processors. Shares in graincorp closed 0.83 per cent up yesterday at $8.53.
Atlas Iron Limited
(ASX:AGO) has beaten full year guidance to ship a record 10.9 million tonnes of ore in FY2014.
The iron ore miner boosted production by 47 per cent on the previous year with more than 30 million tonnes shipped since its operations started. The company says the result includes 9.6 million tonnes of standard fines and 1.3 million tonnes of value fines. Despite the strong result Atlas Iron saw its share price slip 5.34 per cent yesterday, to $0.62.
Commodities
Gold is up $14.90 to $US1,339 an ounce for the August contract on Comex.
Silver is up $0.41 to $21.48 for September.
Copper is up $0.02 at $3.27 a pound.
Oil is up $0.64 to US$102.93 a barrel for August light crude in New York.
Ex-dividends Coventry Group
(ASX:CYG) is paying 11c, fully franked.
Euroz Limited
(ASX:EZL) is paying
9c, fully franked.
