In local economic news today, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Indexes of Economic Activity is due out.

In the equities space, BHP Billiton (BHP) is expected to release its first quarter production report while Crown Resorts (CWN), Origin Energy (ORG), Medibank Private (MPL), Insurance Australia Grouo (IAG), Amcor (AMC), Super Retail Group (SUL) and Godfreys (GFY) hold annual general meetings.

The December SPI futures contract is down 20 points, at 5192.

Key Numbers:

– SPI futures down 20pts at 5192.

– AUD at 72.58 US cents, 87.02 Japanese yen, 64.01 Euro cents and 47.01 British pence

– On Wall St, S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow -0.1%, Nasdaq -0.6%

– In Europe, Stoxx 50 -0.5%, FTSE flat, CAC -0.6%, DAX -0.2%

– Spot gold up $US6.36 or 0.5% to $US1177.15/ounce

– Brent crude up 18 US cents or 0.4% to $US48.79/barrel

– Iron ore slips 0.7% to $US52.93 per tonne

What’s on today

BHP Billiton is scheduled to report quarterly production data; Bank of Canada policy meeting; Ben Bernanke speaks on global interest rates; Bank of England paper on stress tests of UK banks

Earnings: Abbott Laboratories, Baker Hughes, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Kimberly-Clark, General Motors, Texas Instruments, American Express, EBay, Nordea Bank, Credit Suisse Group, Svenska Handelsbanken, Sky Plc, ABB, Iberdrola, ARM Holdings.

Stocks in focus

BHP Billiton is scheduled to report quarterly production data.

Macquarie Wealth Management retains a “neutral” recommendation on engineering firm Cardno and a 12-month price target of $3.45 a share.

Deutsche Bank retains a “buy” on James Hardie Industries and a price target of $21.77 a share.

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