Over 1M new Covid cases in US over week: Aus shares to open higher

The Australian futures market is pointing to a rise at the open of trade, following a late session rally on Wall Street. US markets managed to edge higher despite an unexpected rise in weekly jobless claims and a surge in Coronavirus cases. More than 1 million fresh cases popping up in the US in the past week, prompting the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to issue a warning against Americans travelling for the Thanksgiving holiday next week.

Local economic news

Today the Australian Bureau of Statistics is set to release the preliminary retail trade figures for the month of October; and the Australian National Accounts of the states for the 2019 to 2020 year.

International Markets

Wall Street closed higher yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.4 per cent and the NASDAQ closed 0.9 per cent higher.

European markets closed lower, London’s FTSE lost 0.8 per cent, Paris dipped 0.7 per cent and Frankfurt closed almost 0.9 per cent lower.

Asian markets closed mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 0.7 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite closed 0.5 per cent higher.

Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.3 per cent gain.

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 0.3 per cent higher at 6547.

Company news

New Zealand telecom company, Chorus (ASX:CNU) is offering up to $200 million New Zealand dollars’ worth of bonds. The bookbuild process remains underway. Chorus has revised the indicative issue margin ranges for the bonds. The 2027 bonds are slated to be between 1.4 and 1.45 per cent per annum, and the 2030 bonds to be between 1.70 and 1.75 per cent per annum. The actual issue margin and interest rate on the bonds will be confirmed following the bookbuild on 20 November 2020. Shares in Chorus (ASX:CNU) last traded at $8.07.

Ex-dividend

Soul Pattinson (ASX:SOL) is going ex-dividend today, paying 35 cents fully franked

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 8:00 AM was buying 72.95 US cents, 54.98 Pence Sterling, 75.70 Yen and 61.43 Euro cents.

Commodities

Gold has lost $10.80 to US$1863 an ounce.
Silver was down $0.34 to US$24.11 an ounce.
Oil was up $0.08 to US$41.90 a barrel.
Iron Ore futures suggest 0.2 per cent rise.

Source: Finance News Network