Australia shares seen higher on Wall St, eyes on China GDP

SYDNEY, July 15 | Sun Jul 14, 2013 6:51pm EDT

SYDNEY, July 15 (Reuters) - Australian shares are set to open higher on Monday, following Wall Street's rally last week on strong earnings and the Federal Reserve's stimulus reassurance, but investors are likely to be cautious ahead of China's GDP data due later on the day.

* Local share price index futures edged up 0.3 percent, but was still at a 23.9-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark finished 0.2 percent higher on Friday.

* New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index was up 0.2 point to 4,568.5 in early trade.

* U.S. stocks advanced on Friday, supported by banks' strong earnings, but Boeing limited the Dow's gain after an airplane fire in London.

* Copper fell on Friday as the dollar firmed and as traders cut risk ahead of Chinese data next week, but the metal remained on track for the biggest weekly gain in two months after the United States signaled it would keep monetary policy loose.

* Australia plans to scrap its carbon tax and bring forward an emissions trading scheme, Treasurer Chris Bowen said on Sunday, a policy shift certain to be a focal point in the forthcoming election.

* China is due to report GDP for the latest April-June quarter on Monday, along with other indicators including industrial output and retail sales for June. ----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT @ 2232 GMT ------------

INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 1680.19 0.31% 5.170 USD/JPY 99.22 0.01% 0.010 10-YR US TSY YLD 2.5916 -- 0.000 SPOT GOLD 1293.36 0.71% 9.070 US CRUDE 105.85 -0.09% -0.100 DOW JONES 15464.30 0.02% 3.38 ASIA ADRS 140.62 -0.37% -0.53 -------------------------------------------------------------

* Wall St rises on banks' results; S&P's best week since January * U.S. gasoline jumps on outages, dragging crude higher * Gold posts biggest weekly gain in nearly 2 years * Copper falls on firmer dollar, China GDP data eyed

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(Australia/New Zealand bureaux; +61 2 9373 1800/+64 4 471 4234)

(Reporting By Maggie Lu Yueyang; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/14/markets-australia-stocks-idUSL4N0FK08Q20130714?feedType=RSS&feedName=hotStocksNews

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