Wall St gains, CPI data due, Woolworths to update, TLS is Outperform: ASX poised to rise

Market Reports

by Melissa Darmawan

Major indexes around the globe rallied as earnings season continues to charge ahead. The local market is set to lift as inflation figures are slated. Credit Suisse boosted Telstra's (ASX:TLS) target price. Over 60 companies to provide an update today.

The Aussie sharemarket is set to lift with the SPI futures pointing to a gain of 0.1 per cent.

Dow, S&P 500 hit record highs

A record close for the Dow and the S&P 500 ahead of the tech titans set to report. We will take a look at those tomorrow. Alphabet, Microsoft, and Visa are on the docket. Stocks rallied on better-than-expected earnings and optimism grew on upbeat economic news.

New homes sales jumps despite high prices

New home sales rose at its fastest pace in six months at 14 per cent in September. Strong demand for new homes continued even as prices rose as per the Commerce Department. The median price of new homes jumped 18.7 per cent to US$408,800 from a year ago. Home prices are increasing due to rising material costs along with increased demand. Investors might be seeing the tail end of the housing boom as the price of new homes slows down. Like in Australia, America also saw growth in housing market during the pandemic amid low interest rates.

Consumer confidence jumps ahead of holiday season

Consumer confidence has bounced back after three months of straight declines. The index rose to a reading of 113.8 in October, a 3.6 per cent jump from the month before. With Americans sitting on large deposits, it could signal a strong holiday season in spending on travel, new cars, and entertainment goods like TVs. Let’s see if the funds make its way into the economy during the festive period.

Elsewhere, the Richmond Manufacturing index also rebounded as new orders jumped.

UPS & Facebook moves

Looking at some stocks, UPS soared over 7.0 per cent as the demand for shipping continued to rise. The shipping giant has sustained strong demand. raised its prices and operating margins ahead of the holiday season.

Facebook sunk over 4.0 per cent after the changes to Apple‘s privacy rules put a lid on sales growth. The social titan is also facing scrutiny over its platform with a potential name change on the horizon to ‘Metaverse’.

As earnings season continues to impress, and as we move closer to finalizing the infrastructure spend, stocks are back at making new record highs. The growth outlook for next year looks strong, and more so if pricing pressures ease as the northern hemisphere walks out of Winter.

Wall St gains as bond yields dip

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones eked out a gain of 0.04 per cent to 35,757, the S&P 500 added 0.2 per cent to 4,575, while the Nasdaq closed 0.1 per cent higher at 15,236.

The yield on the 10-year treasury note dipped by two basis points to 1.62 per cent, gold shined on a weaker greenback.

Across the S&P 500 sectors, there were only two losers. Starting with those, industrials fell 0.6 per cent as the worst performer followed by communication services. The best performer was energy, up 0.7 per cent with utilities and healthcare adding over 0.5 per cent.

European markets gains ahead of the federal budget

Across the Atlantic, European markets closed higher. Paris added 0.8 per cent, Frankfurt gained over 1.0 per cent and London’s FTSE added 0.8 per cent lifted by consumer stocks ahead of the federal budget.

Mining & giants fell. BHP lost 0.8 per cent, Rio fell 0.9 per cent, while BP declined 0.4 per cent and Shell closed 0.2 per cent lower.

In other news, US gaming company DraftKings walked away from its US$22 billion deal to buy UK sports-betting operator Entain. It tumbled over 6.0 per cent on the news.

Asian markets mixed on missed coupon payment

Asian markets closed mixed. Tokyo’s Nikkei jumped 1.8 per cent, ahead of the general election. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.4 per cent after property developer Modern Land missed a bond payment. China’s Shanghai Composite closed 0.3 per cent lower.

ASX 200 eyes flat close on casino round

Yesterday, the Australian sharemarket eked out a gain of 0.03 per cent higher to 7,443. The local bourse faded in the afternoon on a mixed bag of winners to losers. Technology was the best performer, while utilities was the worst. Casino stocks took the spotlight.

Crown Resorts (ASX:CWN) surged 8.7 per cent after the casino retains its Melbourne license for the next two years. Stephen O’Bryan has been appointed as an external monitor. He has the right to veto the Crown board. A condition that was tabled from the royal commission to continue its operations.

The Star Entertainment Group (ASX:SGR) jumped 4.3 per cent, while SkyCity Entertainment (ASX:SKC) rose 1.3 per cent, riding on the coattails of Crown on the news.

Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) gave back its gains from the prior day after its trading update. The miner warned of reduced lithium volumes due to lockdown restrictions and unfavourable weather conditions. Also, the average prices received for iron ore fell.

Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) tumbled 6.1 per cent after the gold miner reaffirmed its full-year production guidance and all-in sustaining cost. The miner felt the pain from the lockdowns, high staff turnover and lower output. Despite this, investors appeared to have lost confidence on how the company’s going to hit the lower end of its full-year guidance.

The best-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Nanosonics (ASX:NAN) closing 9.4 per cent higher at $6.08, followed by shares in Crown Resorts (ASX:CWN) and Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS).

The worst-performing stock in the S&P/ASX 200 was Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN), closing 7.0 per cent lower at $39.89, followed by shares in Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) and Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC).

Local economic news

Today the Australian Bureau of Statistics is set to release the inflation figures, the consumer price index for the September quarter. The market forecast is for a rise of 0.8 per cent.

Broker moves

Credit Suisse rates Telstra (ASX:TLS) as an outperform with a target price of $4.40. The broker raised its target price to $4.40 from $4.35 after the telco giant inked a deal to buy Digicel Pacific in partnership with the Australian government. While the analyst sees some risk, as near-term capex for Digicel Pacific could trend higher than the stated target, in general, there's considered a significant level of protection for Telstra. Shares in Telstra (ASX:TLS) closed 0.3 per cent lower at $3.80 yesterday.

IPO

Star Minerals (ASX:SMS) is set to list on the ASX today

Ex-dividend

There is one company trading ex-dividend today, CTI Logistics (ASX:CLX) is paying 2 cents fully franked.

Dividend-pay

There are four companies set to pay eligible shareholders today.

Healthia (ASX:HLA)
Reece (ASX:REH)
360 Capital Group (ASX:TGP)
360 Capital REIT (ASX:TOT)

AGMs

There are 12 companies set to meet with shareholders virtually today.

Blackmores (ASX:BKL)
Chorus (ASX:CNU)
Codan (ASX:CDA)
Experience Co (ASX:EXP)
Imperial Pacific (ASX:IPC)
National Storage REIT (ASX:NSR)
Netwealth Group (ASX:NWL)
QV Equities (ASX:QVE)
St Barbara (ASX:SBM)
Wagners Holding Company (ASX:WGN)
Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC)
Woolworths Group (ASX:WOW)

Annual Report

There are 10 companies slated to release an annual report today.

Aeris Resources (ASX:AIS)
Cervantes Corporation (ASX:CVS)
Eagle Mountain Mining (ASX:EM2)
Getswift (ASX:GSW)
Golden Cross Resources (ASX:GCR)
Lake Resources (ASX:LKE)
MGC Pharmaceuticals (ASX:MXC)
Opyl (ASX:OPL)
Renu Energy (ASX:RNE)
White Energy Company (ASX:WEC)

Quarterly updates

There will be a slew of companies set to release quarterly updates, over 60 of them including Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR)

Commodities

Iron ore has gained 2.7 per cent to US$122.30. Its futures point to a 2.0 per cent gain.

Gold lost $11.30 or 0.6 per cent to US$1796 an ounce, silver was down $0.38 or 1.5 per cent to US$24.22 an ounce.

Oil was up $0.88 or 1.1 per cent to US$84.64 a barrel to 7-year highs.

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:35 AM has strengthened from yesterday, it has punched through to the 75 cents mark, buying 75.03 US cents, 54.51 Pence Sterling, 85.64 Yen and 64.68 Euro cents.


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