US Tech stocks rise: Aus shares poised to open higher

The Australian share market is pointing to gains at the open, with the S&P/ASX200 expected to extend the 4 straight days of gains this week. This comes off the back of mixed results in the US with strong tech stock earning results boosting the Nasdaq and a stand out performance from Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) which rose over 16 per cent. Overnight, the Aussie dollar slid and the European Central Bank held its last meeting under the leadership of Mario Draghi. He defended his decision at the September meeting to ramp up quantitative easing as “justified” pointing to the soft economic data coming out of the country.

Markets

Wall Street closed mixed yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.1 per cent to close at 26,806, the S&P 500 closed 0.2 per cent higher at 3010 and the NASDAQ added 0.8 per cent to 8186.

European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE added 0.9 per cent, Paris gained 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt rose 0.6 per cent.

Asian markets closed mixed, Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.9 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.02 per cent.

Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.6 per cent gain at the open.

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 21 points (0.3%) higher at 6694.

Company news

Diversified mineral explorer, Ardea Resources (ASX:ARL) is planning to spinout its NSW assets. Shareholders will vote on the proposed spinout at the upcoming extraordinary general meeting on 4 November 2019. If the vote is successful, the plan is to list a new entity, Godolphin Resources, on the ASX to hold the NSW assets under the ticker code "GRL". In that event, Ardea shareholders will receive a distribution of shares in the new company based on their holdings in Ardea, with an option to subscribe for more on a priority basis in Godolphin's initial public offering. Shares in Ardea Resources (ASX:ARL) closed 1.08 per cent lower at $0.46.

Ex-dividend

Premier Investments (ASX:PMV) is paying 37 cents fully franked.

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:40 AM was buying 68.18 US cents, 53.09 Pence Sterling, 74.08 Yen and 61.43 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron Ore gained 0.2 per cent at US$87.34
Iron Ore futures suggest a 1.1 per cent gain.
Gold has added $10.30 to US$1506 an ounce.
Silver has gained 24 cents to US$17.82 an ounce.
Oil has gained $0.22 to US$56.19 a barrel.

Source: Finance News Network