Following yesterday’s steep falls the Australian share market looks to lift into the new session. Wall Street advanced to session highs despite US homebuilder confidence declining last month. Across commodity markets the price of iron ore is under $US60 per tonne at a two-week low. The Australian dollar has fallen below $US0.80 ahead of the RBA’s meeting minutes today.
Global markets
Wall Street started the week stronger: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 per cent to close at 18,299, the S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent to close at 2,129 and the Nasdaq rose 0.6 per cent to close at 5,078.
European markets moved higher on Monday: London's FTSE 100 added 0.1 per cent, France's CAC 40 rose 0.4 per cent and Germany's DAX gained 1.3 per cent.
Asian markets started the week mixed: Japan’s Nikkei climbed 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.8 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite dipped 0.6 per cent.
The Australian share market slumped 1.3 per cent into the new week: The S&P/ASX 200 index plunged 76 points to close at 5,659. On the futures market the SPI is 20 points higher.
Currencies
The Australian dollar at 7:30am was buying $US0.7995, 51.08 Pence Sterling, 95.92 Yen and 70.67 Euro cents.
Economic news due out today
Reserve Bank of Australia: Monthly board meeting minutes
ANZ Banking Group
(ASX:ANZ)-Roy Morgan: Weekly consumer confidence index
Company news
BHP Billiton Limited’s
(ASX:BHP) spin-off South32 Limited
(ASX:S32) has seen a more positive debut on the Johannesburg and London Stock Exchanges. Shares in Australia’s newest miner slipped 3.9 per cent to $2.05 on their first day of trade on the ASX yesterday. However South32 rose 2.8 per cent in Johannesburg and gained 3.8 per cent in London from its opening price. Shares in BHP Billiton finished as yesterday’s worst performer, dropping 7.26 per cent to close at $30.13.
Shares in TZ Limited
(ASX:TZL) advanced yesterday after scoring a new purchase commitment from Singapore Post to meet customer demand. The technology group expects to supply and deploy 25 additional locker banks in Singapore. The latest deal takes the total locker banks supplied by TZ in the country to 125. Shares in TZ gained 4.76 per cent to close at $0.11 on Monday.
Ex-dividends
Incitec Pivot Limited
(ASX:IPL) paying a 4.4 cent unfranked dividend
ResMed Inc.
(ASX:RMD) paying a 3.07 cent unfranked dividend
Commodities
Gold has risen $2.30 to $US1,228 an ounce for the June contract on Comex.
Silver has lifted $0.17 to $17.73 for July.
Copper has eased $0.02 to $2.91 a pound.
Oil has declined $0.26 to $US59.43 a barrel for June light crude in New York.