Wall St & commodities sag: Aus shares to open lower

Market Reports

by Jessica Amir

The Australian share market looks set to rub out some of yesterday’s gains and fall at open, after US equities markets closed in the red, while oil, gold and base fells also fell overnight.

Financials pulled Wall Street lower while social media company, Snap, the parent of SnapChat saw stellar performance after it listed.

The Dow Jones pulled back from its record high and fell about 100 points, after machinery company, Caterpillar’s shares fell over 4%.

The S&P was also weighed down by financials, while the tech heavy Nasdaq also fell.

Local economic news

We can expect the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries to release its new vehicle sales for February. What we do know now, is that the industry reached record sales in 2016 and January sales edged 0.6% higher than January last year.

Markets

Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5 per cent to close at 21,003, the S&P 500 lost 0.6 per cent to close at 2,382 and the NASDAQ lost 0.7 per cent to close at 5,861.

European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE closed flat, Paris gained 0.1 per cent and Frankfurt lost 0.1 per cent.

Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.9 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.2 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite shed 0.5 per cent.

And back home, the Australian share market surged higher on Thursday: the S&P/ASX 200 index closed 72 points up to finish at 5,777. On the futures market the SPI is 26 points down.

Company news

Mineral Resources Limited (ASX:MIN) has announced an increase of 158% in hard rock at its Wodgina Lithium Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The mining services and processing company says, it found the extra inferred mineral resource as a result of re-sampling and infill drilling at the site, from September 2016 to February 2017. Mineral Resources Limited (ASX:MIN) closed 3.35% higher yesterday to $11.41.

Ex-dividends

There are 14 companies going ex-dividend today, just to name of few, Infomedia Limited (ASX:IFM) will pay 1.7 cents fully franked. McPherson’s Limited (ASX:MCP) will pay 6 cents, fully franked and REA Group (ASX:REA) will pay 40 cents fully franked.

Currencies and the Australian Dollar

At 8.30am was buying US$7572, 61.72 Pence Sterling, 86.64 Yen and 72.09 Euro cents.

Commodities

Gold has lost $15.00 to $US1,235 an ounce.
Silver has lost 70 cents to $17.79.
Oil has lost $1.20 to $US52.63 a barrel.
 

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