Welcome to Thursday. 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 up 0.4% follow the lead set by Wall Street.US markets posted their third day of gains overnight, with the Dow Jones up 0.2%, the broader S&P 500 up 0.5% and the tech-heavy NASDAQ up 0.3%.
The Australian dollar was slammed down, currently buying 80.9 US cents.
- Private Health Insurance (PHI) premiums are expected to surge by around 6-7% according to the insurers. The higher premiums are expected to come in from April 1, as the PHI insurers finalise their annual premium increases with the federal government's new Health minister.For shareholders in listed insurers NIB Holdings Limited (ASX: NHF) and Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL) its good news – but for the 11 million Australians with PHI, it's not great. An expected $5 co-payment is also expected to come in from July 1, for visits to general practitioners. The Federal government scrapped the $7 fee in December, but still plans to cut the Medicare rebate to doctors by $5.
- Iraq's oil minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has forecast that oil prices won't fall much further, and this could be the bottom. At a conference in Kuwait, Abdul Mahdi said,
"Our estimate is that prices have reached bottom. It is very difficult to drop lower than this. A number of factors will work to correct oil prices upward."
We've already seen BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) slash its capital expenditure in the shale oil regions of the US in response to the lower prices, and it's not alone. Even in Australia, a number of oil producers have cut back their capex, including Santos Ltd (ASX: STO).Could this be an opportunity to pick up oil producers on the cheap?
- Tweet of the Day
Analysts predict many big US LNG projects will be scrapped as the price gap between oil and gas narrows. New report: https://t.co/2Ap7CWHgEg
Hydrocarbon Process (@HydrocarbonProc) January 21, 2015Is this a threat to Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (ASX: LNG)?
- Stock of the Day– brought to you by Mitch Sonogan – Greencross Limited (ASX: GXL). To buy or not to buy the pet retailer and vet aggregator? See what Mitch thinks here.
