The week ahead
March 9th, 2009 by Cale McCulloch
Closing Data
| current | change | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow Jones | 6626.94 | 32.5 | 0.5% |
| NASDAQ | 1293.85 | -5.74 | -0.4% |
| S P 500 | 683.38 | 0.83 | 0.1% |
| FTSE 100 | 3530.73 | 0.87 | 0.0% |
| Nikkei 225 | 7173.1 | -260.39 | -3.5% |
| SPI Futures | 3162 | 16 | 0.5% |
| All Ords | 3,112.00 | -37.1 | -1.2% |
| Oil | 45.43 | 1.89 | 4.3% |
| Gold | 942.7 | 14.9 | 1.6% |
| Silver | 13.323 | 0.218 | 1.7% |
| Aluminium | 1292.5 | -9.5 | -0.7% |
| Copper | 3693 | 52.5 | 1.4% |
| Lead | 1190 | 29.5 | 2.5% |
| Nickel | 9780 | -5 | -0.1% |
| Tin | 11350 | 250 | 2.3% |
| Zinc | 1225 | 38.5 | 3.2% |
US markets crawled into positive territory on the close Friday night, to end roughly 0.5% higher, helped by strength in precious metals, Oil, and some support in the base metals. The combination left the SPI indicating an open on the Australian market roughly 5 points higher this morning. US unemployment data came in broadly in-line with expectations, with the economy shedding 651,000 jobs in the month of February, taking the annual rate to 8.1%.
Weighing on markets was the ongoing struggle of General Motors which is trying to secure more cash, this time looking towards a very disappointed Germany which saw no real restructuring plans in the proposal. This took the stock to a 75 year low.
Meanwhile the UK government has announced that it has increased its holding in Loyds to about 65% (partial nationalisation) through the governments asset guarantee program.
Gold continued the upward trend on more safe haven buying, with the April contract climbing USD 14.90 per ounce to close at USD 942.7 an ounce. This will in turn keep the local gold stocks heading north, so look for continued strength in the likes of Newcrest and Lihir this morning. Oil shot back through the USD 45 a barrel mark, closing up USD 1.89 at 45.43. Strength in the energy sector will also buoy the local index.
All eyes this week will be on Australian Jobs data, with the figures due to be released on Thursday when the market will be expecting job losses for the month of February to come in at 20-25000. Anything better than this could help lift sentiment while worse figures could confirm fears that the recession will continue to deepen for some time. Also something to keep an eye on this week will be the Chinese industrial numbers and export figures that will be important to the direction of local miners following the disappointing reaction to Chinese premier Wen Jiabao’s address to parliament last Thursday.
The only stock trading Ex Dividend in the ASX 200 today is AMP.
Contact your Freeman Fox Stockbroker on 07 3031 9960 or 1800 003 369 Ext 7.
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