5 things you need to know about the Australian sharemarket today

S&P/ASX 200 opens 0.5% higher

Mike King

Mike King is a Fool.com.au Investment Analyst and Writer. He caught the investing bug more than a decade ago, at a time when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and fear reigned in the markets. His initial success as the markets took off encouraged his passion and thirst for knowledge. With 13 years behind him at one of Australia's largest domestic banks, Mike's passion for stocks led him to join a boutique funds management firm, where he stayed for four years. A seven-year stint in equity research at one of the largest investment banks in the world followed that, giving Mike a thirst to pursue his passion further. Mike holds a Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. His passion is to help retail investors invest better, and that passion was one of his primary reasons for joining The Motley Fool Australia in late 2011. Mike has written thousands of articles since joining, including for Fairfax Media, Yahoo!7, Ninemsn and has also appeared on ABC's The Business. You can see all of Mikes' holdings here

Published April 7, 2015 10:05 am AEST

Welcome to Tuesday. 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 0.5% higher.In the US, the Dow Jones gained 0.7% as did the broader S&P 500, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ posted a 0.6% gain.
Oil prices were up strongly, with Brent Crude Oil rising 5.4% to US$57.90 per barrel, and WTI Crude added 5.8% to hit US$51.99 per barrel. (WTI stands for West Texas Intermediate and is the benchmark oil price in the US while the Brent crude oil price is more widely used in Europe.)

The Australian dollar is lower against the US dollar and is currently buying 76.1 US cents.
BHP Billiton Limited's (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto Limited's (ASX: RIO) Singapore marketing operations are under the Australian Tax Office's (ATO) microscope, according to the Australian Financial Review (AFR). The newspaper reports that the miners could be liable for billions in unpaid tax.
The problem for the ATO is that the companies insist they have done nothing wrong and it appears legal. That's not the miners' only problem though. Iron ore prices crashed 5% on Monday to just US$46.70 a tonne. At those prices, the giant iron ore miners are still making a profit – but not much – and the junior miners are going to be in a world of pain.
All eyes will be on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) today, given today is the monthly board meeting to discuss the official cash rate. Most economists expect the central bank to hold fire on cutting rates today, but the market was factoring in a 75% chance of a rate cut prior to the Easter long weekend.
I'm in the 'rates on hold' this month camp, given the economic data out since the last board meeting hasn't really changed to prompt a further rate cut.

You can read more on the implications if the RBA does cut rates today, here.
Tweet of the Day
The Future of Iron Ore https://t.co/iADDetUsfR

— Joe Magyer (@Magyer) February 4, 2015

A look back to an article written by Motley Fool Pro's Joe Magyer, after visiting China.
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