Local stocks will be looking for direction after US stocks inched slightly lower on Thursday, retreating from the previous day’s rally. Analysts are saying that the odds are rising that the Federal Reserve Bank will start raising interest rates before the end of the year.
US economic news
The Commerce Department reported third quarter GDP came in 1.5 per cent higher seasonally adjusted. That's well below the 3.9 per cent read from the previous quarter.
Markets
Wall Street closed little changed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was essentially flat at 17,756, the S&P 500 was also nearly flat to close at 2,089 and the NASDAQ lost 0.4 per cent to close at 5,074.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE slipped 0.7 per cent, Paris dipped 0.1 per cent and Frankfurt shed 0.3 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.6 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.4 per cent.
The Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 68 points down to finish at 5,267. On the futures market the SPI is 14 points down.
Currencies
The Australian Dollar at 8.20AM was buying 70.81 cents, 46.25 Pence Sterling, 85.74 Yen and 64.47 Euro cents.
Economic news
Due out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is the Producer Price Index and the Reserve Bank will release private sector credit figures and their financial aggregates report.
Company news
UXC Limited
(ASX:UXC) says it’s been awarded a $25 million contract to oversee the TasNetworks ERP transformations project. The business solutions company also said that its MD and CEO Cris Nicolli would be stepping down after 12 years with the company.
Shares in UXC last traded 1.7 per cent higher at $1.20.
Adacel Technologies Limited
(ASX:ADA) has upgraded its FY2016 profit guidance. The developer of speech recognition applications says it now expects profit to be 50 per cent higher than FY2015 as opposed to the 25 per cent rise previous stated.
Shares in Adacel Technologies last traded up 12.78 per cent to $1.50.
Ex-divs
One company is trading ex-dividend today: Katana Capital will pay 1.5 cents fully-franked.
Commodities
Gold has shed $30.60 to $US1,146 an ounce for the December contract on Comex. Silver has slipped 71 cents to $ 15.58 for December. Copper is down 4 cents to $2.32 a pound. Oil has shed 19 cents to $45.75 a barrel for December light crude in New York.
