Wall Street managed to recover some early losses overnight and in volatile trade it finished a touch higher, and the Australian sharemarket looks set to follow and extend yesterday’s positive numbers.
The result came after US jobs data showed unemployment claims dropped more than was anticipated last week, which was countered by continued economic pessimism coming out of Europe.
The US jobs data saw the Aussie dollar head south once again, down to $US0.8755.
Global figures
Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2 per cent to close at 16,117, the S&P 500 added 0.01 per cent to close at 1,863 and the NASDAQ is up 0.05 per cent to close at 4,217.
European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE lost 0.3 per cent, Paris lost 0.5 per cent and Frankfurt is up 0.1 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 2.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is down 1 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.7 per cent.
The Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 9 points up to finish at 5,255. On the futures market the SPI is 11 points up.
Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 7:25AM was buying $US0.8755 cents, 54.45 Pence Sterling, 93.08 Yen and 68.39 Euro cents.
Company news
CFS Retail Property Trust Group
(ASX:CFX) has announced the sale of Post Office Square in Brisbane’s CBD for $67 million to a private investor.
CEO Angus Mc Naughton says the sale is in line with the strategy of divesting non-core assets and follows the announced plans for the sale of between $100million to $200 million of non-core assets. The company says Post Office Square’s current book value is $71.1 million and the sale should be complete before Christmas. Shares in CFS closed 2 per cent up yesterday at $2.01
Social media entertainment company Migme Limited
(ASX:MIG) has acquired Singaporean mobile app company LoveByte.
The company says the purchase price will be 757,939 migme shares which were trading yesterday at $0.33 each. LoveByte is a mobile applications business with a core product that allows couples to share private moments in a protected network, and the system is said to have more than 200,000 active users. Shares in Migme closed 3.12 per cent up yesterday at $0.33
Commodities
Gold is down $3.60 to $US1,241 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver is down $0.03 to $17.44 for December. Copper is down $0.03 at $2.98 a pound. Oil is up $0.92 at US$82.70 a barrel for November light crude in New York.
Ex-dividends New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX:NHC) is paying 5.5c fully franked.
