Morrison working to get Australia back in business: ASX poised to open lower
Despite positive leads from US markets, the Australian share market looks set to open lower. Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke with state and territory leaders yesterday who agreed to take steps to get Australia back in business. The leaders will meet again on Friday looking to lift restrictions in three steps with the aim of establishing "a sustainable COVID-19 safe economy in July 2020". Meanwhile over in Europe, Sweden, Poland, Romania and the UK are not seeing a drop in coronavirus cases. The UK now has the highest death toll in Europe.
Local economic news
ABS releases the retail sales data for the March quarter and lending indicators for March and the Living Cost Indexes for the March quarter.
Markets
Wall Street closed higher yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6 per cent to close at 23,883 the S&P 500 gained 0.9 per cent to 2868 and the NASDAQ closed 1.1 per cent higher at 8809.
European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE gained 1.7 per cent, Paris added 2.4 per cent and Frankfurt closed 2.5 per cent higher.
In Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.1 per cent , while Tokyo’s Nikkei and China’s Shanghai Composite were closed.
Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.2 per cent fall.
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 1.6 per cent higher at 5407.
Company news
Electronic donation payment business Pushpay (ASX:PPH) report a decline in NPAT by US$2.8 million over the year ended 31 March 2020, from US$18.8 million to US$16.0 million, a decrease of 15 per cent. The company did increased its total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2020 by US$31.4 million from US$98.4 million to US$129.8 million, an increase of 32 per cent. The company hopes to gain further market share in the US faith sector. Shares in Pushpay (ASX:PPH) closed 6.3 per cent higher at $4.37 yesterday
Currencies
One Australian Dollar at 8:05 AM was buying 64.36 US cents, 51.72 Pence Sterling, 68.56 Yen and 59.36 Euro cents.
Commodities
Gold has added $3.20 to US$1713.80 an ounce.
Silver has gained $0.02 to US$15.13 an ounce.
Oil was up $1.20 to US$25.76 a barrel.
Copyright 2020 – Finance News Network
Source: Finance News Network
