Archives: Reports
November is underway, with the US Presidential election (circus) just a few days away. As we start the weekend, markets are factoring in a Trump victory, but more “surprises” wouldn’t surprise.
The ASX200 slipped 0.25% as we waved goodbye to October; the infamous month finished down 0.6%, but volatility was significantly higher on the stock/sector level as we rolled through AGM season. The financials remained the backbone of the market, advancing 4.5% ahead of key earnings and dividends for 3 of the “Big Four” plus Macquarie Group (MQG).
October wrapped up in the red today, and it was a month of very mixed fortunes from a stock and sector perspective, though the index itself only tracked mildly lower, giving back ~20% of the stellar returns chalked up in September.
Thursday saw the Annual headline inflation rate fall to 2.8% in the three months to September from 3.8% in the June quarter, slightly better than the forecasted 2.9%, but it wasn’t enough to move bond markets or the Aussie Dollar. The numbers were broadly in line with the RBA’s inflation outlook; remember last week, Michele Bullock said it would take another “year or two” before consumer prices are sustainably in their 2-3% target band, i.e. rates will remain higher for longer.
A soft session locally with sellers kicking into gear post a more benign inflation print at 11.30am, though there were some hotter pockets to it, and higher bonds and lower stock prices show how it was interpreted by the market, even though headline CPI at 2.8% came back into the RBA’s target band for the first time in 3-years.
We are making several changes to the Active Growth Portfolio today
China’s top legislative bodies’ looming meeting on 4-8th November is slowly adding a bid tone to the ASX miners. Overnight, Reuters reported that China is weighing up a massive $US1.4 trillion in fiscal stimulus over the next few years, with talk that it might be even more if Trump wins next week’s election – Polymarket now have Trump as a 66.7% favourite!
A solid session today for the market, though once again the action is happening under the hood rather than at the index level with a bunch of sales/quarterly updates, an interesting deal in the retail space and a response with more substance from MinRes (MIN) about prevailing issues with their MD.
The ASX200 managed to eke out a slight 0.1% gain on Monday, with BHP’s 1.3% advance being the market’s backbone. It was a reasonably balanced affair on the sector level, with tech names advancing +2% while the rate-sensitive utilities and real estate stocks slipped over 0.5%. The main area of weakness was the energy sector, which declined 0.54%, which was not too bad considering that Paladin Energy (PDN) delivered a disappointing quarterly update and oil tumbled over 5% on easing tensions in the Middle East – more on this later.
A choppy session with some big moves in individual stocks though the index finished only mildly higher. Uranium shares were hit, as were gold stocks while lithium names found a few friends.
