Australian Stock Market Report – Midday October 21, 2013

A man is reflected as he walks past the Australian Securities Exchange building in central Sydney April 8, 2011. Singapore Exchange Ltd has terminated its $8 billion bid for Australia's ASX Ltd after the Australian government formally rejected the offer on national interest grounds and said changes to the country's financial systems were needed before the bourse could be bought by foreigners. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz (AUSTRALIA - Tags: BUSINESS POLITICS)

 Australian shares are higher for the sixth straight day with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.2 per cent at lunch. Despite the strong run local stocks remain 6 per cent below September highs and are treading water ahead of Chinese data this afternoon.

 American markets were higher overnight with the tech specific Nasdaq a standout. The Dow Jones put on 0.1 per cent while the broader S&P500 Index rose by 0.9 per cent. The S&P500 is made up of the 500 largest companies listed in the US and is a usefulmeasure of how US companies are performing. The Dow Jones consists of only 30 of the larger businesses in North America.

 Apple (AAPL;us) rose by 2 per cent overnight ahead of its fourthquarter earnings out after market close this morning. The tech giant recorded a 13 per cent surge in profit between July and September to US$8.47bn (~three times as profitable as Google). The result was boosted by the sale of 39.27m units of the iPhone 6 (and iPhone 6 plus). Apple has a market cap (size on market) of A$640m (around five times larger than CBA).

 Mining companies are adding to Monday's 1.1 per cent surge with a 0.25 per cent improvement. The price of iron ore rose by 0.7 per cent of $0.6 to US$81.2 per dry tonne last night although is still close to a five-year low. Australia's third largest ore producer Fortescue Metals (FMG) is an outperformer - surging by 2.9 per cent.

 Newcrest Mining (NCM) is down 0.1 per cent. The country's largest gold producer failed to impress the market with a 12 per cent slump in gold output between July and September. NCM shares are up 25.6 per cent this calendar year following a 64 per cent slump in 2013.

 Qantas (QAN) is up 1.5 per cent at lunch. Around 1500 aircraft engineers have reportedly agreed to a new four-year deal with Qantas. This includes an 18 month pay freeze as part of the airline's $2bn cost cutting plans.

 Consumer confidence fell by 1.9 per cent last week according to the results of ANZ-Roy Morgan's weekly sentiment survey.

 Chinese economic data released at 1pm AEDT is likely to be a highlight for markets this afternoon. Reports on economic growth, industrial production and retail spending will be key. The market is expecting annual Chinese growth to have eased from 7.5 per cent to 7.2 per cent.

 The Australian dollar buys US$0.878 and €0.686.

 Volume is light ahead of China's economic data download at 1pm AEDT. 786.3m shares have been traded today worth just $1.43bn. 425 stocks are up, 353 are down and 325 are unchanged.

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