Overseas Market Report – U.S. Stocks End Little Changed as ECB Boost Fades
U.S. stocks closed flat on Thursday after a fall in oil prices outweighed fresh stimulus from the European Central Bank.
As was broadly expected, the ECB unveiled new measures to boost inflation. The bank both expanded the size and scope of its bond purchase and pushed interest rates further into negative territory.
The euro initially fell against the dollar, but it rebounded after ECB head Mario Draghi said that he doesn't anticipate any further cuts in rates.
Oil prices fell after hitting a three-month high earlier this week.
Initial U.S. unemployment claims fell by 18,000 to 259,000 last week. Claims are now at the lowest level in five months. The less volatile four-week moving average was off by 2,500 to 267,500.
At the close the Dow and the S&P 500 were both flat, while the NASDAQ had declined 0.3%.
Shares of Dollar General (DG) jumped after the company released fourth-quarter earnings. The 2.2% increase in same-store sales and the 10-basis-point operating margin expansion to 11.6% in the fourth quarter (9.5% for 2015) have alleviated some concerns that higher wages and competition were going to weigh on the firm. In 2016, the company expects square footage to increase by 6%-8%, same-store sales to increase by 2%-4% and operating profit to increase by 7%-11%.
For Australian ADRs listed on the NYSE, BHP Billiton slipped 42 cents (1.56%) to $26.54, ResMed added 81 cents (1.40%) to $58.80, Telstra Corporation gained 1 cent (0.05%) to $19.27, Spark New Zealand added 14 cents (1.18%) to $11.98 and Westpac declined 10 cents (0.41%) to $24.26.
At 8:00 AM (AEDT), the 10-year Treasury note yield was 1.93% and the 5-year yield was 1.45%.
European stocks fell following Draghi's comments that more rate cuts were unlikely from the ECB.
The FTSE 100, French CAC 40 and Germany's DAX were down 1.8%, 1.7% and 2.3%, respectively.
Asian markets finished mixed.
The Shanghai Composite was off 2%, the Hang Seng was down 0.1%, while the Nikkei 225 was up 1.3%. India's Sensex fell 0.7%.
Australian Market Report- Local Markets Are Expected To Open Lower
Ahead of the local open, SPI futures were 6 points lower at 5,152.
Thursday 10 March – close. The Australian market experienced a volatile day. The local sharemarket fluctuated above the flat line for the most part of the day, but dipped into negative territory in the final hour of trading, finishing this choppy session marginally lower. There were mixed results from the sectors; energy posted the biggest gains while health care lagged behind the rest. The Australian dollar appreciated against most major currencies.
The All Ordinaries lost 4.80 points to 5,210.90 while the S&P/ASX 200 fell 7.10 points to 5,150.10.
In This Issue
Cromwell Property Group (CMW)
Cromwell Property Group announced on 10 March 2016 that the Company has successfully renegotiated the terms of its $861m secured debt platform. The renegotiated facility under the platform extends the Company's weighted average debt expiry (WADE) from 3.22 years as at 31 December 2015 to 4.38 years. It also reduces the weighted average margin across all facilities by 5 basis points. The nature of the security, covenants and material conditions remain unchanged. A total of six banks participated in the renegotiated facility. The Company also announced last month that Moody's Investors Service had issued a senior secured rating of Baa2 to the Company's fully drawn, senior secured bank facilities and a senior unsecured issuer rating of Baa3 to the Company. CMW remained unchanged at $1.01.
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