Welcome to Friday. Here are the five things I'm looking at today on the Australian sharemarket.
- The S&P/ ASX 200(Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) looks set to open higher this morning, following gains on Wall Street overnight.The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6% while the broader S&P 500 jumped 1.0% while the tech-heavy NASDAQ surged 1.2%.
Crude oil prices were up again overnight, with Brent oil gaining 4.4% to US$57.05 per barrel, while iron ore is virtually unchanged at US$62.27 per tonne.
The Australian dollar is steady against the US dollar and is currently buying 77.3 US cents.
- Gold miner Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM) has reported an underlying net profit of US$200 million, but has again declined to pay a dividend. At least it's better than the large losses the miner has suffered in previous years.If you want to read more about Newcrest, we wrote an article earlier this week, which you can find here, and we'll be posting a detailed article later today on the results.
- Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) is returning $7.8 billion back to shareholders, partly in an attempt to deter suitor Glencore. $2.6 billion of that will come from a share buyback, with the remainder paid out in dividends over 2014.The iron ore miner says it has managed to trim costs by US$4.8 billion since 2012, and more cost cutting is in the pipeline – as we noted earlier this week.
- Tweet of the Day
CBA now more leveraged than a home owner with a 5% deposit and 95% loan https://t.co/E9XMjRtWCa
christopher joye (@cjoye) February 12, 2015It's not just us who are bearish on the big four banks, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) riskier than a high-risk homeowner.
- Stock of the Day– brought to you by Ryan Newman – Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO). The giant iron ore miner has posted a 9% fall in earnings to US$9.3 billion for the full 2014 year, but lifted its dividend and is buying back US$2 billion worth of its shares. You can get the details here.
