Wall Street lower on trade tensions : Aus shares to open flat

Australian shares are set to open flat following weak leads from Wall Street. Stocks fell Friday on news that Chinese officials were cutting short their visit to the US dampening hope of a trade war resolution between the two countries.The major indexes also snapped a three-week winning streak. The yield on the US 10-year note shed 6 basis points to 1.72 per cent on Friday. The gap with its Australian counterpart is now 70 basis points.

Oil prices have posted their biggest weekly gain since June, boosted by rising Middle East tensions and supply concerns after an attack on Saudi Arabia’s energy industry last weekend.

Local economic news

The week kicks-off today when CommBank releases its ‘flash’ manufacturing and services purchasing manager indexes for September. On Tuesday the Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe gives a speech at the Armidale Business Chamber. On Wednesday, the Department of Employment’s skilled internet job vacancies data is scheduled for August. Also on Wednesday, the ABS releases June quarter data on Engineering Construction. Finally on Thursday, the ABS releases detailed estimates on the job market for August and the ‘Finance and Wealth’ estimates for the June quarter.

Markets

Wall Street closed lower on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.6 per cent to close at 26,935, the S&P 500 lost 0.5 per cent to close at 2992 and the NASDAQ fell 0.8 per cent to 8118.

European markets closed mixed on Friday: London’s FTSE fell 0.2 per cent, Paris gained 0.6 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.1 per cent higher.

Asian markets closed mixed on Friday: Tokyo’s Nikkei added 0.2 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite closed higher, up 0.2 per cent.

Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to 0.03 per cent gain. On Friday, the Australian share market closed 13 points (0.2 per cent)higher at6731.

Company news

National Australia Bank has announced that Ross McEwan will start with the Bank as Group CEO and MS on Monday 2 December 2019.
The news follows the announcement of his appointment on 19 July 2019 Shares inNational Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) closed 1.6 per cent higher to $29.79 on Friday.

Ex-Dividends

Big River Industries Ltd (ASX:BRI) is paying 2.2 cents fully franked
Chorus Limited (ASX:CNU) is paying 12.7611 cents unfranked
Dicker Data Limited (ASX:DDR) is paying 5 cents fully franked
Gale Pacific Limited (ASX:GAP) is paying 1 cent unfranked
Money3 Corporation (ASX:MNY) is paying 5 cents fully franked

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:45 AM was buying 67.71 US cents, 54.34 Pence Sterling, 72.94 Yen and 61.46 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron Ore has lost 0.7 per cent to US$92.56.
Iron Ore futures suggest a 0.9 per cent gain.
Gold has gained $8.90 to US$1515 an ounce.
Silver was down 4 cents to US$17.85 an ounce.
Oil has dropped $0.10 to US$58.09 a barrel.

Source: Finance News Network