Powell says recovery is far from complete: ASX poised to open lower

Following mixed leads from US markets, the Australian share market looks set to open lower this morning. The US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell says recovery is ‘far from complete.’ He also reiterated that the central bank planned to keep up low interest rates and large-scale bond buying. The tech sell-off continues with the NASDAQ continuing to be hit. Britain's jobless rate rose to 5.1 per cent in the last three months of 2020, its highest in nearly five years. Consumer prices in the EU rose 0.2 per cent m/m for a 0.9 per cent year on year increase, as expected by economists.

Local economic news

ABS Fourth quarter construction work done and wage price index.

Markets

Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.05 per cent higher at 31537, the S&P 500 added 0.13 per cent to 3881 and the NASDAQ closed 0.5 per cent lower at 13465.

European markets closed mixed, London’s FTSE added 0.2 per cent, Paris gained 0.2 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.8 per cent lower.

Asian markets closed mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei was closed, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.03 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite shed 0.2 per cent.

Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.1 per cent fall.

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 0.9 per cent higher at 6839.

Company news

Seven West Media (ASX:SWM) has signed a Letter of Intent to provide news content to Facebook. It is subject to signing a long-form agreement between between the two companies.
Seven West Media Chairman Kerry Stokes AC said: “The establishment of this new partnership with Facebook is a significant move for our business and reflects the value of our original news content across our successful metropolitan and regional broadcast, digital and print properties. The move comes as Facebook agreed to lift its ban on Australian news content. following the government’s agreement to amend the mandatory digital bargaining code. Shares in Seven West Media (ASX:SWM) closed flat at $0.54

Ex-Dividends

AGL Energy Limited (ASX:AGL) is paying 31 cents unfranked
AGL Energy Limited (ASX:AGL) is paying 10 cents unfranked
Codan Limited (ASX:CDA) is paying 10.5 cents fully franked
Downer EDI Limited (ASX:DOW) is paying 9 cents unfranked
Fletcher Building (ASX:FBU) is paying 9.5 cents unfranked
IRESS Limited (ASX:IRE) is paying 30 cents 40 per cent franked
MyState Limited (ASX:MYS) is paying 12.5 cents fully franked
Navigator Global Ltd (ASX:NGI) is paying 4.5 cents unfranked
Sequoia Financial Group (ASX:SEQ) is paying 0.4 cents fully franked
Telstra Corporation. (ASX:TLS) is paying 5 cents fully franked
Telstra Corporation. (ASX:TLS) is paying 3 cents fully franked

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:50 AM was buying 79.15 US cents, 56.10 Pence Sterling, 83.34 Yen and 65.17 Euro cents.

Commodities

Gold has lost $3.00 to US $1805 an ounce.
Silver was down $0.36 to US $27.77 an ounce.
Oil was up $0.63 to US $57.84 a barrel.
The iron ore futures are suggesting a fall of 0.3 per cent

Source: Finance News Network