Some cracks started to appear in the ASX today with the recently hot Energy & Materials sectors coming under pressure while the traditionally defensive Healthcare & Staples saw buying of recent weakness. All the talk has been about commodities in recent days/weeks and today some profit-taking became obvious, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise really given the recent run.
After opening the session higher, stocks were largely one way for the rest of the day closing down ~1% with the out of favour IT sector continuing to languish, ably supported in the sell-off by Healthcare. On the other hand, if you’re heavily into energy & gold you’re cheering with bullion +$US14 in Asia today, settling around $US1985 at our close, Brent Crude hitting ~US$130/bbl while industrial commodities in Asia continued to rally – more on that below.
Weakness into the weekend ruined what was nearly a perfect week. The local index was up 154pts to yesterdays close in the first 4 days, giving back around a third of the gains on the final day. A further escalation in tensions in the Ukraine was largely to blame for the weakness and as is often been the case, traders have looked to take money off the table at the end of the week rather than risk 2 days of news flow without liquidity. Despite that there was some support into the afternoon and the index finished +85pts from their lows around midday.
A choppy session for the ASX overall today with some big divergence between the haves and have nots, the Resources & Energy sectors again the beacon of hope while Healthcare and Staples tapered off. While it was a positive day overall, only around 50% of companies on the ASX finished in the green, and their were some big moves on either side of the ledger.
A solid underbelly from the market today to close marginally higher despite US stocks falling more than 1.5% overnight plus our influential banking sector ended the session lower. Energy again the standout with Oil up ~10% in Asia, which is huge while the broader Materials sector was also bullish. The composition of our index, being tilted towards resources helped the local market outperform the US by ~5% in February and continues to have a positive impact, this was a key call for MM this year.
A solid morning session for the ASX with the market peaking +110points higher at midday before the afternoon was filled with sell orders, a +47pt gain a disappointment overall. The IT stocks were strong rallying +5.66% as a group to be the clear standout - when this sector rallies, it will rally hard, however it has experienced a few false starts of late. We’re bullish tech in the short term and can see a short, sharp aggressive bounce unfolding from here.
The ASX closed higher today however by a lesser margin than the futures had implied on Saturday morning (+165pts) following a strong rally on Wall Street, the weekend news flow took some the sheen off Friday’s impressive gains. Still, the ASX finished +0.70% despite US Futures trading -2.7% lower at their worst today while Asian markets also fell into the red. Materials & Energy stocks were well supported while the risk off IT sector led the other side of the ledger.
Well….no one wanted to go home long this afternoon with the market seeing the best of things very early on this morning following the big turnaround in the US market overnight. The ASX 200 hitting a morning high of 7045 / +55 points although a bunch of stocks traded ex-dividend so that also weighed on the cash market, SPI Futures ended around ~100points below the morning high which is a better reflection of the afternoon weakness. Technology stocks down ~6% yesterday, bounced over 8% today...
A tough day for Aussie stocks coming off weakness in overseas markets while an escalation in the Russia/Ukraine saga saw a big risk off swing right across Asia. News reports broke around 1pm Sydney time of a nationally televised speech from Vladimir Putin saying Russia doesn’t plan to “occupy” its southern neighbour but is looking to defend itself from those who took Ukraine “hostage”. While all this is very unsettling and there will be real human and economic consequences, this isn’t new news from a markets perspective, so I’m mildly surprised about the aggressive nature of today’s sell-off, ~3% down is a big move.
Risk back on today with the market rallying 0.60% led by the recently under pressure technology stocks while the more defensive areas (Utilities & REITs) lagged. It’s often true that the threat of something eventuating is more harmful to prices than the actual event itself and that could well be the case for the current geopolitical mess. At the corporate level, earnings are dominating – a huge day today and another tomorrow with a handful of our stocks delivering results.
After opening the session higher, stocks were largely one way for the rest of the day closing down ~1% with the out of favour IT sector continuing to languish, ably supported in the sell-off by Healthcare. On the other hand, if you’re heavily into energy & gold you’re cheering with bullion +$US14 in Asia today, settling around $US1985 at our close, Brent Crude hitting ~US$130/bbl while industrial commodities in Asia continued to rally – more on that below.
Weakness into the weekend ruined what was nearly a perfect week. The local index was up 154pts to yesterdays close in the first 4 days, giving back around a third of the gains on the final day. A further escalation in tensions in the Ukraine was largely to blame for the weakness and as is often been the case, traders have looked to take money off the table at the end of the week rather than risk 2 days of news flow without liquidity. Despite that there was some support into the afternoon and the index finished +85pts from their lows around midday.
A choppy session for the ASX overall today with some big divergence between the haves and have nots, the Resources & Energy sectors again the beacon of hope while Healthcare and Staples tapered off. While it was a positive day overall, only around 50% of companies on the ASX finished in the green, and their were some big moves on either side of the ledger.
A solid underbelly from the market today to close marginally higher despite US stocks falling more than 1.5% overnight plus our influential banking sector ended the session lower. Energy again the standout with Oil up ~10% in Asia, which is huge while the broader Materials sector was also bullish. The composition of our index, being tilted towards resources helped the local market outperform the US by ~5% in February and continues to have a positive impact, this was a key call for MM this year.
A solid morning session for the ASX with the market peaking +110points higher at midday before the afternoon was filled with sell orders, a +47pt gain a disappointment overall. The IT stocks were strong rallying +5.66% as a group to be the clear standout - when this sector rallies, it will rally hard, however it has experienced a few false starts of late. We’re bullish tech in the short term and can see a short, sharp aggressive bounce unfolding from here.
The ASX closed higher today however by a lesser margin than the futures had implied on Saturday morning (+165pts) following a strong rally on Wall Street, the weekend news flow took some the sheen off Friday’s impressive gains. Still, the ASX finished +0.70% despite US Futures trading -2.7% lower at their worst today while Asian markets also fell into the red. Materials & Energy stocks were well supported while the risk off IT sector led the other side of the ledger.
Well….no one wanted to go home long this afternoon with the market seeing the best of things very early on this morning following the big turnaround in the US market overnight. The ASX 200 hitting a morning high of 7045 / +55 points although a bunch of stocks traded ex-dividend so that also weighed on the cash market, SPI Futures ended around ~100points below the morning high which is a better reflection of the afternoon weakness. Technology stocks down ~6% yesterday, bounced over 8% today...
A tough day for Aussie stocks coming off weakness in overseas markets while an escalation in the Russia/Ukraine saga saw a big risk off swing right across Asia. News reports broke around 1pm Sydney time of a nationally televised speech from Vladimir Putin saying Russia doesn’t plan to “occupy” its southern neighbour but is looking to defend itself from those who took Ukraine “hostage”. While all this is very unsettling and there will be real human and economic consequences, this isn’t new news from a markets perspective, so I’m mildly surprised about the aggressive nature of today’s sell-off, ~3% down is a big move.
Risk back on today with the market rallying 0.60% led by the recently under pressure technology stocks while the more defensive areas (Utilities & REITs) lagged. It’s often true that the threat of something eventuating is more harmful to prices than the actual event itself and that could well be the case for the current geopolitical mess. At the corporate level, earnings are dominating – a huge day today and another tomorrow with a handful of our stocks delivering results.
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