NS: Australia shares seen down on lower oil, earnings eyed
Australian shares are seen lower on Thursday, adding to 1.5 percent drop the previous day, with commodity stocks pressured by lower base metal and oil prices.
A dour outlook for the U.S. housing market is also expected to weigh down on building products maker James Hardie Industries N.V. , while Insurance Australia Group Ltd could be a focus after it raised A$450 million ($287 million) through a share placement. [ID:nSYD439776].
Among companies to report earnings on Thursday are oil and gas producer Santos Ltd , Lihir Gold Ltd and Healthscope Ltd .
March September share price index (SPI) futures fell 19 points to 3,358, a 55-point discount to the underlying share index.
On Wednesday, the S&P/ASX 200 index <.AXJO> fell 1.5 percent to 3,413.2 points, taking losses this year to 4.1 percent.
New Zealand shares were down 0.6 percent to 2,606.5. ----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2129 GMT ------------
INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 <.SPX> 788.42 -0.1% -0.750 USD/JPY 93.78 1.48% 1.370 10-YR US TSY YLD 2.7572 -- 0.104 SPOT GOLD 983.95 1.61% 15.600 US CRUDE 34.44 -1.40% -0.490 DOW JONES <.DJI> 7555.63 0.04% 3.03 ASIA ADRS <.BKAS> 82.47 1.25% 1.02 ------------------------------------------------------------- * Wall St dips on housing data, sour results [.N] * Oil prices fall further on economic gloom [O/R] * Gold softens from highs but haven demand supports [GOL/] * Aluminium sinks to 6-year low, closes up slightly [MET/L]
