Welcome to Monday and the start of a new 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 0.4% higher as Wall Street soared on Friday. In the US, the Dow Jones and the broader S&P 500 both reversed Thursday's loss, rising more than 1% each, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ recorded a huge 1.3% gain.Oil prices were mixed, with Brent Crude Oil down 0.5% to US$66.47 per barrel while WTI Crude was flat at US$59.16 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.)
Iron ore prices were flat thanks to a Chinese public holiday, but last traded at US$56.18 per tonne.
The Australian dollar has dropped heavily against the US dollar again and is currently buying 78.2 US cents.
- Oh dear. Could this be the start of a rout in bank shares? Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) has delivered a flat half profit of $3.78 billion, lower than analyst expectations of $3.8 billion and the same level as last year.
In another blow for dividend hungry investors, the bank added just 3 cents to take the fully franked interim dividend to 93 cents, compared to 90 cents last year. That could unsettle the market today, as big things were expected of the banks – with analysts predicting more than $15 billion in first-half net profits.Investors who thought that bank shares never go down may be about to find out the hard way. At the start of trading, Westpac shares had dropped 3.5%, while the other banks were all down heavily.
If you're a bank shareholder, you need to read this –> What Every Bank Shareholder Must Know
- Mining services stocks are also having a bad day. Worleyparsons Limited (ASX: WOR) has been forced to slash its global workforce by 2,000 and take $125 million in one-off losses, thanks to falling commodity prices.
NRW Holdings Ltd (ASX: NWH) has gone into a trading halt, pending a market update after the mining services company was reported to be taking Samsung to court over a contract on the Roy Hill mine.
And then there's transport company McAleese Ltd (ASX: MCS) which today has forecast a $20 million fall in earnings to $70 million. McAleese has taken lower contracting rates on transporting iron ore for Atlas Iron Limited (ASX: AGO).
- Tweet of the Day
MYOB $MYO expected to list on #ASX at 12pm AEST today. Accounting software co. has raised ~$833.1m & has issue price of $3.65 #ausbiz ^SD
CommSec (@CommSec) May 3, 2015MYOB Group Ltd (ASX: MYO) has had mixed reviews, and it will be interesting to see what investors think of the accounting business, and where the shares go. My tip is down – although it should be noted that I'm hopeless at short-term tips.
- Stock of the Day – brought to you by the Motley Fool writers again – Top Stock Picks for May. It's our ever-popular stocks of the month. If you want to know which stocks our writers are our favourites right now, you need to read this.
