Following a muted rebound in US stocks and a bounce in oil prices, the Australian sharemarket is expected to open slightly higher. Already this morning the RBNZ has delivered a cut to interest rates to 2.25 percent, citing weakening global growth alongside subdued inflation. Investors will now look ahead to the ECB meeting which is expected to offer more negative rates.

Markets

 

Wall Street closed up: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2 per cent to close at 17,000, the S&P 500 added 0.5 per cent to close at 1,989 and the NASDAQ added 0.55 per cent to close at 4,674.

 

European markets closed up: London’s FTSE gained 0.3 per cent, Paris gained 0.5 per cent and Frankfurt rose 0.3 per cent.

 

Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.1 per cent, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 1.3 per cent.

 

The Australian share market closed higher yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 49 points up to finish at 5,157. On the futures market the SPI is 11 points up. 

Currencies

 

The Australian Dollar at 8:30AM was buying $US0.7484 cents, 52.64 Pence Sterling, 84.85 Yen and 68.02 Euro cents.

 

Company news

 

General Mining Limited (ASX:GMM) and its Mouth Cattlin partner Galaxy Resources (ASX:GXY) has announced that the offtake agreements reported on Tuesday will settle through Mitsubishi Corporation. Mitsubishi are GMM’s Sale & Distribution partner, as announced to market in October last year. Mitsubishi is to formalize the full length sales agreements between GMM and the China-based customers as announced earlier this week. Shares in General Mining closed 1.43 per cent lower yesterday at $0.35.

 

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises (ASX:DMP) has updated shareholders on progress with the acquisition of Joey’s pizza chain in Germany. Domino’s has secured binding documentation to convert all 210 franchised stores of Joey’s Pizza to the Domino’s Pizza brand. The remaining two stores are corporate stores, which will be converted. The first 25 to 30 stores are expected to convert before 30 June 2016. Shares in Domino’s Pizza closed 0.9 per cent up yesterday at $56.31.

Ex-dividends

Name	Code	Date	Amount(cents)	Franking
Adelaide Brighton	ABC	10/03/16	11.0	100
Adelaide Brighton	ABC	10/03/16	4.0	100
Air New Zealand	AIZ	10/03/16	9.2	0
Bentley Capital Ltd	BEL	10/03/16	0.5	100
Bell Financial Group	BFG	10/03/16	3.0	100
BHP Billiton Limited	BHP	10/03/16	22.3	100
Brambles Limited	BXB	10/03/16	14.5	25
Cochlear Limited	COH	10/03/16	110.0	100
Ebos Group Ltd	EBO	10/03/16	21.4	95.77
FlexiGroup Limited	FXL	10/03/16	7.3	100
ICSGlobal Limited	ICS	10/03/16	2.0	0
Jumbo Interactive	JIN	10/03/16	2.0	100
Lifestyle Communit.	LIC	10/03/16	1.0	100
Metlifecare Ltd	MEQ	10/03/16	1.4	0
Mighty River Power	MYT	10/03/16	5.3	0
Pro Medicus Limited	PME	10/03/16	1.5	0
Pacific Star Network	PNW	10/03/16	1.4	100
QBE Insurance Group	QBE	10/03/16	30.0	100
Schaffer Corp. Ltd.	SFC	10/03/16	12.0	100
Sims Metal Mgmt Ltd	SGM	10/03/16	10.0	0
Sky Network	SKT	10/03/16	13.9	0
Trade Me Group	TME	10/03/16	7.2	0
Tox Free Solutions	TOX	10/03/16	4.5	100

Commodities

Gold has lost $10.90 to $US1,252 an ounce for the April contract on Comex.
Silver has lost $0.10 to $15.29 for May. Copper has gained $0.02 to $2.24 a pound for May.
Oil has gained $1.59 to $US40.01 a barrel for April light crude in New York.