Local Markets Commentary

Australian market trade commences on uninspiring international equities leads today.

Commodities leads are mixed. Oil continued lower and gold higher. Copper turned and rallied. Iron ore pulled back after no change the previous session.

The $A slipped to ~US77.10c after trading above US77.20c yesterday evening.

Locally today, domestic corporate reporting season continues, with results from TLS and GMG. RIO also trades ex-dividend.

The Melbourne Institute publishes a monthly consumer inflationary expectations report 11am AEST.

Singapore Telecommunications (includes Optus) will also report this morning.

Earlier this morning, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut rates 0.25% to 2.00%, citing international economic uncertainty. The reduction is the sixth in 14 months and another is considered likely in November.

Japan’s markets will remain closed today due to a public holiday.

Overseas Market Commentary

Trade across major European equities markets varied overnight, largely due to select corporate financial reports. US indices fell sharply a couple of hours into trade, on discouraging petroleum inventories.

A US June job opportunities report showed a 0.1% increase for the month. Layoffs were estimated at 1.6M, against 1.7M in May.

Weekly mortgage applications rose 7% due to lower rates following the surprise June quarter GDP estimate Friday week ago.

The national July deficit came in at $US113B, 24% lower for the year, and in line with expectations.

In the UK, returns on some government bonds (gilts) turned negative after the Bank of England found (Tuesday) there were insufficient sellers for the amount it proposed to spend on such purchases.

Tonight in the US, weekly new unemployment claims are due, together with July import and export prices. .

June quarter GDP figures are expected out of Russia.

Companies scheduled to report earnings today and tonight include: Singapore Telecommunications (including Optus), Alibaba, Macy’s, Noble Group, RWE, Glencore and Petrobras.

Royal Dutch Shell, Rio Tinto, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Merlin Entertainments trade ex-dividend on the FTSE 100.