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Following weak leads from the US the Australian share market looks set to face another challenging day of trade.

 

The Australian dollar has shown steady gains this week and is sitting above the $US0.94 mark this morning.

 

Meanwhile, data from the US overnight show a 0.3 per cent rise in retail sales, while the figure points towards renewed consumer confidence it was below analysts’ expectations. US jobs data was mixed this week, and it left Wall street in the red overnight; and further unrest in Iraq is putting pressure on oil prices.

 

Global figures

Wall Street closed lower yesterday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 110 points to close at 16,734, the S&P 500 lost 14 points to close at 1,930 and the NASDAQ lost 34 points to close at 4,298.

 

European markets closed mixed: London’s FTSE gained 4 points, Paris lost just below a point and Frankfurt lost 11 points.

 

Asian markets closed lower: Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 96 points, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 82 points, and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 3 points.

 

The Australian share market closed lower yesterday: The S&P/ASX 200 Index closed 25 points down to finish at 5,429. On the futures market the SPI is 30 points down.

 

Turning to currencies and the Australian Dollar at 7:20AM was buying $US0.9425 cents, 55.67 Pence Sterling, 95.90 Yen and 69.56 Euro cents.

 

Economic news

Due out today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is Lending finance for April.

 

Company news

 

FSA Group Limited (ASX:FSA) have lifted their profit guidance for this year to an increase of 18 – 25 per cent on last financial year. The figure is an increase on the February forecast of a 10 – 18 per cent gain on the previous period. Shares in FSA jumped 10.39 per cent yesterday on the news to $1.27

 

Satellite communications company Newsat Limited (ASX:NWT) has attained a $US10 million dollar loan facility and will launch the Jabiru-2 in September. The short-term loan facility will come from Ever Tycoon and will be used for the company’s teleport business. The news comes on the back of the company, last week, reporting challenging business conditions and forecsting a net loss for the year. Shares in Newsat closed flat yesterday at $0.30.

 

Commodities

Gold is up $12.80 to $US1,274 an ounce for the August contract on Comex.
Silver is up $0.36 to $19.53 for July.
Copper is down $0.02 at $3.02 a pound.
Oil is up $2.13 at $US106.53 a barrel for July light crude in New York.