Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
Futures suggests the ASX200 will be up just over half a per cent on open (0.57 per cent).
While solid gains were made on US markets on Friday, the week overall was the worst for the Dow Jones this year so far as it shed nearly 2%.
The Nasdaq and S&P500 both also lost more than a per cent last week.
Back home: Qantas’ (ASX:QAN) has landed its rehashed frequent flyer program.
Qantas has promised 20 million more seats to frequent flyer passengers through its new Classic Plus Flight Rewards program.
It claims it will be easier for points to be used to fly to destinations including London, Tokyo, New York and Singapore, even during busy peak periods.
But the market announcement this morning also reveals new type of reward seat will generally require more points than required for bookings through the existing program.
The Classic Plus program will cost Qantas about US$120 million next financial years.
And today the company also announced an up to $448 million share buyback.
In other stocks to watch, Beach Energy (BPT) has this morning revealed its Waitsia JV gas plant is going to cost $150m to $250m more than expected – and will be delayed by about six months – after quality issues during pre-commissioning.
Ansell (ASX:ANN) is set to acquire 100% of Kimberly-Clark’s personal protective equipment manufacturing business in A$974 million (US$640 million) deal. To pay for it, Ansell’s launched a $400 million Institutional Placement with shares priced at a six per cent discount of $22.45. It’ll also raise through a $65 million Share Purchase Plan.
And Fortescue (ASX:FMG) will open the doors to its $116 million Gladstone PEM50 factory for making commercial-scale hydrogen electrolysers in Queensland. It’ll be ready to produce more than 2 gigawatts annually.
One Aussie dollar is buying 65.7 US cents.
Brent oil is above US$90 a barrel.
Gold has edged back up comfortably above US$2300 (A$3516).
Iron ore has been at US$102 this morning, and natural gas is trading at US$1.77 per million British thermal units.
