Tech stocks push up Wall Street: ASX poised to open higher

The Australian share market is set to open higher this morning as tech stocks advanced in New York. There is also optimism in the US regarding further stimulus and strong quarterly results from some of their major companies. Bitcoin shot up this week after Elon Musk's company, Tesla, said it had invested $US1.5 billion into the currency. The Australian dollar rose as the greenback weakened slightly.

Local economic news

Westpac and the Melbourne Institute release the February consumer confidence report. Also today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics issues the regional or ‘small area’ data on building approvals for December.

Markets

Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed slightly lower, down 0.03 per cent to 31,376, the S&P 500 lost 0.1 per cent to 3911 and the NASDAQ closed 0.1 per cent higher at 14,008.

European markets closed mixed, London’s FTSE added 0.1 per cent, Paris also gained 0.1 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.3 per cent lower.

Asian markets closed higher, Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 0.4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite closed over 2 per cent higher.

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

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 0.9 per cent lower at 6821.

Company news

The Infratil Board (ASX:IFT) today announced that Jason Boyes will succeed Marko Bogoievski as Infratil Chief Executive Officer and a Director effective from 1 April 2021. Marko is stepping down after 12 successful years as Infratil’s CEO and a Director. He led the successful IPO of Z Energy in 2013, and has been instrumental in numerous Infratil investments since, including the acquisition of Vodafone NZ and subsequent capital raise in 2019, and the establishment of Longroad Energy in 2016 and Galileo Green Energy in 2020. Shares in Infratil (ASX:IFT) closed 0.57 per cent higher at $7.07 yesterday.

Ex-Dividends

Milton Corporation (ASX:MLT) is paying 5.75 cents fully franked
ResMed Inc (ASX:RMD) is paying 3.5789 cents unfranked

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 8:15 AM was buying 77.36 US cents, 56.00 Pence Sterling, 80.92 Yen and 63.84 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron Ore has gained 2.2 per cent to US$164.10.
Iron Ore futures suggest 1.5 per cent gain.
Gold has gained $2.20 to US$1836 an ounce.
Silver was down $0.28 to US$27.30 an ounce.
Oil was up $0.43 to US$58.40 a barrel.

Source: Finance News Network