Australian shares are poised to open higher this morning – despite a commodities and miners retreat still currently affected by the trade concerns between the US and China. Tech stocks rallied over night as Apple has becomes the first American based company to achieve a market value of US$1 trillion. The company was co-founded four decades ago by Steve Jobs in a Silicon Valley garage and has changed the way we use computers, music and mobile communications. The shares rose 2.9 percent to close at $207.39 in New York on Thursday. On the commodities front, metals and gold are still sliding, Iron Ore is trading at $66.87 a tonne – that’s up 5 per cent.
Local economic newsAi Group will release the figures for the services industries for July.
MarketsWall Street closed mixed on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed almost flat, losing 0.03 per cent to close at 25,326, the S&P 500 closed 0.5 per cent higher to close at 2,827 and the NASDAQ gained 1.2 per cent to close at 7803.
European markets closed lower yesterday: London’s FTSE dropped 1.01 per cent, Paris fell 0.7 per cent and Frankfurt closed 1.5 per cent lower.
Asian markets closed lower, Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 1.03 per cent lower, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 2.2 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite dropped 2 per cent.
On the futures markets, the ASX futures are pointing to a 21pts gain. Yesterday, the Australian share market closed lower with the S&P/ASX 200 Index losing 35 points to close at 6241.
Company newsNew South Wales SCA Property Group
(ASX:SCP) has bought Sturt Mall in Wagga Wagga for $73 million. There is an implied passing yield of 6.3 per cent. Sturt Mall is anchored by a Coles supermarket and a Kmart discount department store. Shares in SCA Property Group
(ASX:SCP) closed flat at $2.38.
And Automotive parts company Bapcor
(ASX:BAP) has addressed speculation that they were a likely candidate to acquire the Kmart Tyre and Auto business. They say at this time, Bapcor is not participating in any process to acquire this business. Shares is Bapcor
(ASX:BAP) closed 0.58 per cent lower to $6.90
CurrenciesOne Australian Dollar at 7:40AM was buying 73.66 US cents, 56.60 Pence Sterling, 82.24 Yen and 63.60 Euro cents.
CommoditiesIron ore futures are pointing to 1.4 per cent gain.
Gold dropped $11.70 to $US1216 an ounce.
Silver fell 13c at $US15.32 an ounce.
Oil added $1.33 to $US68.99 a barrel.
CryptocurrenciesThe three most traded cryptocurrencies are trading lower: Bitcoin has dropped 0.3 per cent to US$7578, Ethereum has lost 1 per cent to US$412 and EOS was down 0.7 per cent to US$7.12.
