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A positive session for the ASX, though the best of it was seen early keying off a great move yesterday and positive flows in the US overnight, as the markets has quickly priced in the prospect of a rate cut in Australian this year, but probably more important, no further rate hikes. UBS changed their forecast this morning from a hike in August to no change, while Futures are now pricing a 63% chance of a cut before Santa arrives. In the US overnight, the Fed pretty much confirmed a September cut. In July the Fed said they needed to be more confident inflation was on the right track, overnight they said they ‘had’ more confidence that inflation was on the right track, laying the foundation for a move.
We are amending the Active Growth Portfolio Today
It took an almighty +1.75% surge on the 31st, but July has again delivered a stellar performance. For 2024, the seasonally strong month delivered an impressive +4.2% gain, eclipsing the average return over the last decade of +3%. We are excited about the market following yesterday’s CPI. Still, we will continue to focus on the stock and sector rotation, especially as August/September is historically the weakest seasonal period for stocks – the average decline over the last decade for these 2-months is -3.8%.
The ASX surged higher, bonds rallied (yields lower), the AUD fell and the RBA breathed a huge sigh of relief with inflation data coming in cooler than expected today, taking rates hikes off the table, and bringing back the probability of cuts this side of Christmas. Rate-sensitive stocks soared, though the buying was broad-based based with over XX% of the main board finishing in the black.
The ASX200 recovered strongly from an aggressive early morning sell-off on Tuesday to close down 0.5%, not a great result but far better than the earlier 1.2% drop. The index actually managed to end the session close to its intraday high as bargain hunters surfaced in most areas except for the resources—again! Following the placement of 100 million Fortescue (FMG) shares at $18.55, the iron ore miner fell over 10%, contributing almost a third of the ASX’s decline. When combined with BHP’s 53c drop, we had two major miners making up over 50% of the main board’s 36-point drop.
The market was lower today, though it recovered nearly 60 points from the lows so showed some backbone into weakness, with consumer discretionary stocks following their US peers higher, while Financials remained well supported.
US equities had a cautious overnight session ahead of this week’s major tech reports. Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Apple, and Amazon are likely to determine whether tech stocks can bounce back from last week’s declines. So far, with just over 40% of S&P 500 having now reported, according to FactSet, Q2 blended earnings growth is running at +9.8%, up ~100 bp from end of June. Blended revenue growth rate is +5.0%. In addition, 78% have beaten consensus EPS expectations, in line with one-year average, while 60% have beaten on revenue, below the 63% average. Earnings beats are being rewarded less than average and misses being punished more than average, a theme we have flagged.
The ASX 200 is back testing the 8000 level with broad-based gains to kick off an important week. Local inflation data out on Wednesday the headline act, while Q2 earnings in the US increase and local reporting season slowly builds steam.
The last few weeks saw the S&P500 correct 4.9% and the tech-based NASDAQ 9.5%, including their worst day in almost a year on Wednesday following disappointing earnings from Tesla (TSLA US) while Alphabet (GOOGL US) broadly met expectations, yet shares still fell. The simple problem is expectations are high, plus of course we’ve gotten used to ‘beats’ rather than ‘meets’ from US tech, and if companies don’t deliver, hot/momentum money exits, often resulting in a dramatic unwind, which is amplified by passive ETF flows. The recent concerns around the AI and tech space will come further under the microscope this week when Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft report June quarter earnings.
The week started with the news that Joe Biden had finally stepped aside for Kamala Harris to run against Trump; the odds of a Republican victory have shortened, but the Don remains the clear favourite. However, 100 days is a massive time in politics; everyone is now talking about Kamala Harris having a chance of victory just two weeks after Trump was shot in Pennsylvania. On Wednesday night, US tech stocks unravelled as earnings missed lofty expectations, e.g. Tesla shares (TSLA US) plunged over 12% on weaker-than-expected results, including a 7% drop in auto revenue year-on-year and Alphabet (GOOG US) suffered its worst day since January, falling 5% after YouTube advertising revenue fell below expectations. The NASDAQ finished the week down 2.6%, while the Russell 2000 small caps gained 3.5%!
