‘Circuit breaker’ tripped on Wall St for the 4th time this week: ASX poised to open lower
Following negative leads from US markets, the Australian share market looks set to open lower this morning. Panic selling continues in overseas markets. Stocks tumbled on Wall Street on Wednesday, as the coronavirus crisis continues. Investors are fearful about the economic damage from the pandemic. Trading in the US briefly came to a halt yesterday as a “circuit breaker” was tripped. This suspends trading for 15 minutes to ensure orderly market behaviour. This was the fourth time in a week that a circuit breaker was triggered. The Australian dollar continues to extend its losses against the US dollar falling as low as US57 cents overnight. On the commodities front, oil is down and gold has dropped over $40.
Local economic news
Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth, December 2019.
Markets
Wall Street fell yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 6.3 per cent to close at 19,899, the S&P 500 shed 5.2 per cent to 2398 and the NASDAQ fell 4.7 per cent to 6990.
European markets closed lower: London’s FTSE fell 4.1 per cent, Paris dropped 5.9 per cent and Frankfurt closed down 5.6 per cent.
Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei shed 1.68 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 4.2 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite was down 1.8 per cent.
Taking all of this into equation, the SPI futures are pointing to a 1.4 per cent fall.
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 6.4 per cent lower at 4953.
Company News
As the COVID-19 outbreak continues, First Graphene (ASX:FGR) report that their Henderson facility continues to operate with recommended precautions. In the United Kingdom – GEIC have closed all our non-essential research laboratories including the GEIC this week. Their staff have ensured all experiments were shut down safely, chemicals and raw materials were safely stored and will work remotely. In Sri Lanka all flights into the country have been suspended for two weeks. Their staff their will also work remotely. Shares in First Graphene (ASX:FGR) closed 6.1 per cent lower at 9 cents yesterday.
Ex-Dividends
Auckland International (ASX:AIA) is paying 10.5042 cents unfranked
Clime Investment (ASX:CIW) is paying 1 cent fully franked
Countplus Limited (ASX:CUP) is paying 1.25 cents fully franked
Crown Resorts Ltd (ASX:CWN) is paying 30 cents 25 per cent franked
Embelton Limited (ASX:EMB) is paying 20 cents fully franked
Fletcher Building (ASX:FBU) is paying 8.9654 cents unfranked
1300 Smiles Limited (ASX:ONT) is paying 13.25 cents fully franked
Peet Limited (ASX:PPC) is paying 0.5 cents fully franked
RXP Services Ltd (ASX:RXP) is paying 1 cents fully franked
Swick Mining (ASX:SWK) is paying 0.3 cents fully franked
Vita Life Sciences (ASX:VLS) is paying 2.25 cents fully franked
Currencies
One Australian Dollar at 7:45 AM was buying 57.74 US cents, 49.77 Pence Sterling, 62.43 Yen and 52.94 Euro cents.
Commodities
Iron Ore has gained 0.6 per cent to $91.71.
Iron Ore futures suggest a 1.65 per cent gain.
Gold has dropped $40.10 to US$1486 an ounce.
Silver has lost $0.50 to US$12.00 an ounce.
Oil was down $4.50 to US$22.45 a barrel.
Copyright 2020 – Finance News Network
Source: Finance News Network
