Negative offshore leads look to push the Australian share market down at open ahead of a shortened trading week before the Easter long weekend. Today’s anticipated softness follows on from a fall of almost 1 per cent on the local bourse on Friday after hitting a post GFC-high Thursday. Wall Street also retreated from all time highs to reverse direction last week and all three major indexes are now sitting in the red for the year.
In the week ahead the US earnings season will ramp up amid muted expectations for results. Closer to home attention will turn to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest meeting minutes tomorrow and the miners will start to release their quarterly production reports.
Global markets
Wall Street widened the weekly fall on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 143 points to close at 16,027, the S&P 500 fell 17 points to close at 1,816 and the Nasdaq fell 54 points to close at 4,000.
European markets also dropped on Friday: London's FTSE 100 Index dropped 80 points, France's CAC 40 dropped 48 points and Germany's DAX dropped 139 points.
Asian markets moved lower on Friday: Japan’s Nikkei sank 340 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 183 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 4 points.
The Australian share market ended slightly higher over last week but lost ground on Friday: The S&P/ASX 200 index retreated 52 points on Friday, almost wiping out the weekly gain of 5.8 points to finish at 5,429. On the futures market the SPI is pointing 14 points lower.
Currencies
The Australian dollar has held below $US0.94 after last week rising above it and at 7:20am was buying $US0.9392, 56.16 Pence Sterling, 95.43 Yen and 67.82 Euro cents.
Company news
Qantas Airways Limited
(ASX:QAN) resumed operations to and from Cairns airport yesterday after Tropical Cyclone Ita swept across north Queensland over the weekend. The category one system made landfall on Friday evening and is expected to be downgraded this afternoon as conditions improve. Australia’s largest airline says it will continue to monitor weather patterns and provide updates on any impact to the company. Shares in Qantas Airways lost 0.42 per cent on Friday to finish the week at $1.185.
Dual-listed Auckland International Airport Limited (ASX:AIA, NZE:AIA) has welcomed extra Auckland to Perth direct flights in response to higher demand. The announcement comes after Qantas revealed last week it will continue to boost its seasonal service between Auckland and Perth from December 2014 to April 2015. Auckland Airport says the move shows the popularity of direct services on the route and could add more than $10 million to the New Zealand economy.
Ex-dividends
Clover Corporation
(ASX:CLV) paying a 0.5 cent fully franked dividend
Commodities
Gold has lost $1.60 to $US1,319 an ounce for the June contract on Comex.
Silver has eased $0.14 to $19.95 for May.
Copper has added $0.01 to $3.04 a pound.
Oil has gained $0.34 to $US103.74 a barrel for May light crude in New York.
