A similar sort of session to yesterday played out today with the best of it seen early, although we started from a higher level with strong buying on open seeing the index +60 points not long after the bell, before sellers emerged cutting those gains in half.
The market managed to grind out a gain today, helped along by the miners, with particularly strong showings from gold, iron ore and uranium as all three surged on different drivers – we’re taking a breather on gold and took a profit on our Evolution Mining position. Not a lot happening on the macro side to move markets today as all eyes await the Fed rate decision on Thursday, though bits and pieces on the stock front kept things interesting across the retail and resources space.
The ASX 200 slipped 0.1% on Monday as investors continued to “buy the dip”, allowing the market to recover from an initial 0.8% fall. The winners managed to outnumber the losers on the main board, but weakness in heavyweights CBA, BHP and CSL was enough to drag the index into negative territory, albeit just.
The local market kicked things off on the backfoot down ~60pts before it flipped the switch straight after the open and reversed most of the losses though couldn’t claw its way back to positive territory. Profit-taking in gold stocks and weakness in healthcare kept the ASX in the red despite strength across lithium names.
The S&P 500 has surged more than 30% from its April lows, fuelled by expectations that the Fed will cut rates several times this year, with a 25-basis-point move widely seen as a certainty on Wednesday.
The ASX200 ended last week largely flat, holding September's current pullback to 1.2%. It may have been a quiet week on the index level, but it wasn’t on the sector level, with solid gains by the rate-sensitive tech, real estate, and utilities sectors while the energy sector fell 4.5% as OPEC+ maintained its elevated supply. It was disappointing to see the local index drift while US indices punched higher, although a number of majors trading ex-dividend did weigh locally. The heavyweight miners slipped slightly after mining giants Anglo American / Teck Resources agreed to merge, forming a ~$53 billion copper powerhouse.
The ASX had a solid end to the week, with a broad-based rally following on from Wall Street’s record-setting session overnight. Expectations that the Fed will move on rate cuts as soon as next week helped fuel gains in financials and miners, while gold continued its charge toward fresh highs, offsetting weakness across the energy names.
The ASX 200 retreated 0.3% on Thursday, with the losses in the banking sector catching the eye after Bendigo (BEN) became the third bank this week to announce job cuts.
The market gave back some ground today on weakness in banks and healthcare, despite strength across gold and stabilisation for lithium stocks that took a bath yesterday. There was also a host of defense wins across various companies, driving gains in most.
The ASX200 advanced +0.3% on Wednesday, but the performance was extremely polarised on the stock and sector levels. Less than 45% of the main board advanced, but when the “Big Four Banks” rally an average of more than +1.5%, the index will always be hard to suppress.
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