The Australian market looks set to open higher later this morning following gains in Wall Street overnight after decision by FED to hold tight on its near-zero interest rate.

The SPI futures contract is up 37 points at 5,343.

In local economic news today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is due to release International trade price indexes for September quarter.

In equities space, ANZ releases its full year results while Woolworths is slated to post first quarter sales results.

Key Numbers

SPI futures up 37pts to 5343

AUD at 70.96 US cents, 85.88 Japanese yen, 65.01 Euro cents and 46.49 British pence

On Wall St, late, S&P 500 +0.8%, Dow +1%, Nasdaq 0.9%

In Europe, Stoxx 50 +1.2%, FTSE +1.1%, CAC +0.9%, DAX +1.3%

Spot gold down $US9.88 or 0.9pc to $US1157.00/ounce

Brent crude up $US2.10 or 4.5% to $US48.91/barrel

Iron ore slumps 3% to $US49.95/ tonne

What’s on today

Australia HIA new home sales, trade price index, Newcrest AGM in Melbourne; New Zealand rate decision.

Stocks in focus

Morgan Stanley has an “overweight” on Fortescue Metals Group after a site tour. “If we assume 90 per cent price realisation, FMG C1 cash costs and sustaining capex maintained at $US15 a tonne and $US2 a tonne from FY16 to FY20, respectively, with our base-case currency assumptions, we estimate the required headline iron ore price for FMG to repay all its debt when it falls due to be about $US47 a dry metric tonne. This implies capacity for both debt reduction and capital returns at current prices.”

Health and aged-care stocks: RSL Care and RDNS will merge into a single organisation to respond to changes in the market through scale and joint capabilities. Together the two organisations will become one of Australia’s largest not-for-profit providers. In April this year, Generation Healthcare REIT (GHC) bought a portfolio of aged care properties, including three from RSL Care. The sector includes companies such as Japara, Regis and Estia.

Deutsche Bank has a “hold” on Sonic Healthcare and a target price at $20.

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