Reuters: Hot Stocks: Australia shares may pause as mkt looks for new drivers

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Australia shares may pause as mkt looks for new drivers Feb 14th 2013, 22:34 Tweet Share this Email Print Thu Feb 14, 2013 5:34pm EST SYDNEY, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Australian shares may open lower on Friday as investors look for new drivers to fuel a rally that has taken the market to 4-1/2 year highs, with some caution expected after weak euro zone growth data and Rio Tinto's $3 billion loss. * Local share price index futures slipped 0.1 percent to 4,987, a 49.9 point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index. The benchmark hit a 4-1/2 year high on Thursday, and closed up 0.7 percent at 4,036.88. * New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index fell 35.92 points to 4,203.28 in early trade. * The S&P 500 eked out a small gain for a third straight session on Thursday, helped by a flurry of merger activity, though investors see no catalysts to lift the market further with major averages near multi-year highs. * Optimism that China's demand for copper will pick up after the Lunar New Year holidays boosted copper prices. * Australia and New Zealand Banking Corp, the country's fourth-largest bank, posted a 6.2 percent rise in first quarter cash earnings. * Reserve Bank of Australia's Christopher Kent will speak to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) in Perth (0515 GMT). ----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2224 GMT ------------ INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 1521.38 0.07% 1.050 USD/JPY 92.92 0.08% 0.070 10-YR US TSY YLD 1.9983 -- -0.058 SPOT GOLD 1633.75 -0.04% -0.710 US CRUDE 97.3 0.30% 0.290 DOW JONES 13973.39 -0.07% -9.52 ASIA ADRS 136.81 -0.37% -0.51 ------------------------------------------------------------- * Wall St ends up slightly for third day * Oil rises with US gasoline supply concerns * Gold drops to 6-week low on euro recession fears * Copper rises on optimism over Chinese demand For a digest of the day's business stories in Australian newspapers, double click on (Reporting by Pauline Askin; Editing by John Mair) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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