Apple sales warning weighs on Wall Street: Aus shares set for flat start

The local sharemarket is set for a flat start in early trading following a mixed session on Wall Street yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for a third consecutive day as investors digested a sales warning from Apple. The tech giant said that it would fall short of its recently announced quarterly sales target because of slower iPhone production and weaker demand in China due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. shares of Walmart went the other way rising by 1.5%, despite the retail giant forecasting slowing online growth for the year and reporting weak results for the holiday quarter.

Global oil prices were little changed on Tuesday. Gains were capped by investor concerns over the impact on crude demand from the coronavirus

Markets

Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.6 per cent to close at 29,232, the S&P 500 closed 0.3 per cent lower at 3370 and the NASDAQ added 0.2 per cent to 9733.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE fell 0.7 per cent, Paris dropped 0.5 per cent and Frankfurt dipped 0.8 per cent.
Asian markets closed mixed: Tokyo’s Nikkei fell 1.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.5 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.1 per cent.
Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to 0.1 per cent gain.
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 0.2 per cent lower at 7114.

Local economic news

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the Lending Indicators for December 2019.

Company news

Lottery company Tabcorp (ASX:TAH) has announced group revenue rose 4.4 per cent for the first half of 2020 and earnings (EBITDA) up 2.1 per cent vs pcp. The company maintained its interim dividend of 11.0 cps, fully franked. Shares in Tabcorop Holdings (ASX:TAH) closed 0.7 per cent lower at $4.57 yesterday.
Ex-Dividends

Commonwealth Bank. (ASX:CBA) is paying 200 cents fully franked
Contrarian Valfd Ltd (ASX:CVF) is paying 0.458 cents fully franked
Glennon SML Co Ltd (ASX:GC1) is paying 1 cents fully franked
Ironbark Capital Ltd (ASX:IBC) is paying 1.2 cents fully franked
Navigator Global Ltd (ASX:NGI) is paying 12.6338 cents unfranked
Suncorp Group Ltd (ASX:SUN) is paying 26 cents fully franked

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 8:35 AM was buying 66.88 US cents, 51.45 Pence Sterling, 73.49 Yen and 61.99 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron Ore has fallen 0.3 per cent to $90.18..
Iron Ore futures suggest a 1.4 per cent gain.
Gold has added $19.00 to US$1605 an ounce.
Silver has gained $0.43 to US$18.17 an ounce.
Oil was up $0.09 to US$52.14 a barrel.

Source: Finance News Network