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Local stocks shrugged off fears around Saturday’s tepid briefing on China stimulus from Lan Fo’an. The local miners rallied throughout the day to close near their session highs, and the Materials Sector was the day’s top performer, gaining +1.3%.
The widely expected sell-off in China facing equities failed the materialise today, with resource stocks and others actually rallying, latching onto the belief that China has signalled its intentions of support, even if they haven’t articulated the finer details or provided specific guidance on the size of stimulus.
Finance Minister Lan Fo’an promised more support for China’s struggling property sector and hinted at more significant government borrowing to shore up the economy, but again, it lacked the granular details investors were looking for. The briefing didn’t produce a headline dollar figure for the fresh fiscal stimulus that the markets had sought.
Overseas indices were firm into the weekend, with European bourses setting the tone early, with the EURTO STOXX 50 gaining +0.68% and the German DAX +0.85%. In the US, the S&P500 closed above 5800 for the first time as the banking behemoths ushered in a promising start to the third-quarter earnings season by powering it and the Dow to fresh highs. A distinct broadening of the performance barometer saw JP Morgan Chase (JPM US) rise +4.4% after topping profit and revenue expectations, while Wells Fargo (W US) popped +5.6% on stronger-than-expected profits. Interestingly, Investors overlooked disappointing revenue and an 11% decline in net interest income.
A quiet session to round out a solid week for the ASX (+0.8%) as we await more news from China around fiscal policy, to complement the monetary policy support already in play. The stage has been set for tomorrow morning, and whatever happens, it will have a bearing on how markets and some sectors in particular trade into year end. Over to you, My Fo’an!
The ASX200 posted a 10-day high on Thursday and finally closed up +0.4%; support came from the miners who improved throughout the day ahead of Saturday’s much-anticipated announcements from China’s Finance Minister. After Tuesday’s disappointing stimulus updates from Beijing, we expect them to “try harder” this time!
Similar to yesterday, the index felt tired even though it made reasonable gains overall driven by a resurgent material sector as another policy update from China looms.
We are making several changes across portfolios today
The ASX200 finished up just +0.1% in a choppy session on Wednesday, with the banks offsetting further weakness by the miners – a 6.67% plunge by Chinese stocks didn’t help. A 1.8% surge in New Zealand’s equities after the RBNZ cut rates by 0.5% helped local sentiment. Still, it wasn’t enough to make meaningful gains as the heavyweight iron ore miners dragged the chain due to China’s lack of further stimulus measures on Tuesday. However, we wouldn’t fight Beijing, who announced yesterday evening AEST that further announcements will follow on Saturday when markets are closed—we “wouldn’t be short for quids.
The ASX felt tired today, having pushed up ~50 points early on, the optimism was lost when China came online at 12.30pm and fell ~4% dragging down resources stocks that dominated the detractors, with BHP now ~6% from its highs last week as investors fret over a lack of detail on China’s stimulus plans.
