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Trump said he would take up to two weeks to decide on the US’s involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict, but it ended up being closer to two days after American bombers struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites.
The ASX200 finished last week down 0.5% in a lacklustre period on the index level that was characterised by tight ranges with an overall net downside bias as the proverbial “Can” was kicked down the road in the Israel-Iran conflict. The ongoing uncertainty in the Middle East helped the energy sector advance by +5.3%, while the materials sector was the standout loser, driven by gold and iron ore names. Elsewhere, it felt like we were starting to see early signs of jockeying for the tax man and book ruling off into the EOFY.
It was a mixed day on the ASX today with half the main board higher/lower with the banks and materials sectors doing some damage early but the buy the dip mentality well and truly in play as we saw a significant grind higher through the session amounting to a +43pt move from the low of the day to the close.
The ASX 200 slipped another 0.1% on Thursday, with the song remaining the same on the stock & sector level. CBA scaled new highs, trading through $183, while weakness in the large-cap iron ore miners was enough to ensure the index closed mildly lower.
Another resilient session for the ASX, at the index level at least, with large cap, index heavy names continuing to find flows, though there was plenty of weakness across certain sectors, resources being an area that remained under pressure.
Wednesday saw the ASX200 close down 0.1% after rotating in another tight 0.4% range as the market remains in its “Middle East Conflict” holding pattern. The losers slightly beat the winners, with only two stocks moving by over 5%, illustrating the lacklustre nature of the day. At the sector level, weakness in the resources sector more than offset gains in tech, which we will examine later today
The ASX bounced between positive and negative territory today amid a sharp sell-off in materials after iron ore hit a 9-month low but ultimately closed toward its lows of the days narrow ~30pt trading range.
We are making several changes across Market Matters Portfolios today
The ASX200 slipped 0.1% on Tuesday as uncertainty around the Middle East increased following some confusing and contradictory comments from President Trump et al, leading to a ~0.6% slide by the US S&P 500 futures, surrendering most of Monday’s advance in the process.
The ASX came off the boil as the day progressed, tracking lower into the close, ending ~30pts below the daily high. Not an aggressive move in any stretch and we’re clearly not seeing a lot of panic, however, when we stand back and look at stocks only a few percent below all-time highs and overlay that with Trumps call to evacuate Tehran, pushing up Oil prices, our bias is to err on the side of selectively reducing market exposure in the short term – the risk/reward has become less appealing, we think.
