Wall St closes lower, Europe higher on Brexit hopes: Aus share to open higher

The local sharemarket is poised to open higher, despite stocks closing lower on Wall Street on Monday. In the US stocks fell slightly as investors looked ahead to U.S.-China trade talks, which are set to resume in Washington on Thursday. Media reports have suggested Chinese officials are increasingly reluctant to agree to a broad trade deal pursued by President Donald Trump.

Despite the broad based losses ConocoPhillips rose more than 2 per cent after the company raised its quarterly dividend by almost 38 per cent to 42 cents per share. The stock was among the best performers in the S&P 500.

Meantime, Uber Technologies climbed was also up more than 2 per cent after an analyst at Citigroup upgraded the ride-sharing service to buy from neutral, citing a favorable “risk/reward” outlook.

European markets climbed on Monday afternoon as traders looked for hints on the direction of Brexit. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday urged French President Emmanuel Macron to “push forward” to secure a Brexit deal and reiterated his intention for the U.K. to leave the EU on October 31.

Local economic news

NAB will release its latest business confidence and conditions surveys

Markets

Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4 per cent to close at 26,478, the S&P 500 closed 0.5 per cent lower at 2939 and the NASDAQ lost 0.3 per cent to 7956.

European markets closed higher: London’s FTSE added 0.6 per cent, Paris gained 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt rose 0.7 per cent.

In Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.2 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s Shanghai Composite were closed.

Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 0.4 per cent gain.

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 47 points or 0.7 per cent higher at 6564.

Company news

New Zealand retirement village operator, Summerset (ASX:SNZ) has announced 165 sales for the quarter ending 30 September 2019, 77 of these were new sales while 88 were resales. The result is slightly lower than the 82 sales attributed to the same time last year. Summerset CEO Julian Cook said total sales were aligned with expectations for the third quarter and resales were performing very well. Shares in Summeset Group Holdings (ASX:SNZ) closed 0.5 per cent higher at $6.03 yesterday.

Ex – Dividend

Ausdrill Limited (ASX:ASL) is paying 3.5 cents fully franked
Reece Limited (ASX:REH) is paying 14.25 cents fully franked
Rhipe Ltd (ASX:RHP) is paying 2 cents fully franked
Shaver Shop Group Ltd (ASX:SSG) is paying 2.5 cents 80 per cent franked

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:40 AM was buying 67.32 US cents, 54.77 Pence Sterling, 72.23 Yen and 61.38 Euro cents.

Commodities

Gold has lost $15.60 to US$1497 an ounce.
Silver has dropped $0.16 cents to US$17.46 an ounce.
Oil has added $0.14 to US$52.95 a barrel.

Source: Finance News Network