Welcome to Monday and the start of a new trading week. Here are the five things I'm looking at today on the Australian sharemarket.
- The S&P/ ASX 200(Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has opened down 0.2%, as oil prices fell again overnight. Our large oil stocks are leading the market down.US markets were closed, but European markets posted decent gains, with the UK's FTSE 100 adding 0.5%.
The Australian dollar is virtually unchanged at 82.2 US cents.
- A raft of Chinese economic data is set to be released this afternoon and could dictate the direction of our market. Full year data for Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as well as December retail sales, industrial production and fixed-asset investment are all expected to show China's annual growth rate to be weak – possibly the weakest in 24 years suggests Fairfax media.That could have a major impact on our markets – and the companies closely tied to China's growth, including our commodity exporters.
- Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) continues to ramp up iron ore production, exporting 295.4 million tonnes in 2014. The giant iron ore miner says it continues to increase production, and expects to produce 330 million tonnes in 2015. The miner also delivered 25.1 million tonnes of thermal coal for the year, and 603,000 tonnes of copper, but both commodities represent a very small proportion of earnings compared to iron ore.Iron ore prices fell 0.8% overnight to US$68.09 per tonne.
- Tweet of the Day
WIN billionaire Bruce Gordon is likely to oppose a potential $590m sale of Ten https://t.co/IjyWJZuwvu $#ausbiz
Financial Review (@FinancialReview) January 19, 2015 - Stock of the Day– brought to you by Andrew Mudie – Vocation Ltd (ASX: VET). The education provider has gone into a trading halt – will it report another massive profit downgrade? You can see what Andrew thinks here.
