US indices recovered slightly after Wednesday's sell-off, although all remain in the red over the course of the week. Results across Europe were mixed, but the macro-economic outlook remained overwhelmingly negative. Asian and Australasian indices saw a negative day of trading, with the majority of indices falling by more than -1%.
Indices back up, and improved confidence in looming rate cut
US indices attempted a comeback after Wednesday's losses, but the S&P 500 and NASDAQ ended down -0.5% and -0.9%, respectively. Positively, the DOW closed up +0.2%. Investors looked to ditch technology stocks for the second day in-a-row with Nvidia down -2.0%, AMD down -4.0%, and Alphabet down -3.0%. The US economy grew +2.8% year-on-year through Q2, much higher than the +2.1% expected. IBM jumped +4.6% after reporting revenue higher than the market anticipated. Ford on the other hand slipped -17.9% after missing profit forecasts by a considerable margin. In terms of fixed income securities, the 2-year US treasury bond yield rose +3bps to 4.441% whilst its 10-year counterpart fell -3bps to 4.257%.
London gains whilst the rest of Europe are less confident
Poor results emerging out of US tech, weak Chinese demand, and unfavourable German business sentiment combined to see Europe’s Stoxx 600 drop -0.7%. Nestle finished down -5.1% after downgrading their sales outlook for FY24 by -3%. In London, the FTSE 100 finished trading higher, gaining +0.4%. BT Group began trading by falling -2.4% after results saw a decline in quarterly revenue, however it finished the day +8.6% after a flurry of trades in the late afternoon. British drug-maker Indivior jumped a major +17.3% after pleasing investors with its quarterly results.
Australasia's worst day of trading in 2024?
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell -3.3%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slumped -1.8%, Korea’s KOSPI index dropped -1.7%, and China’s Shanghai Composite and CSI 300 fell -0.5% each. In Australia, the ASX 200 fell -1.3% as disappointing US tech earnings rippled across the Pacific. Despite strong iron ore export forecasts for 2025, Fortescue slipped -5.5%. Favourable gold prices saw Newmont add +1.3%. Macquarie finished down -3.4% after its quarterly results showed no improvement in profit from the same quarter last year. Seek fell -1.7% after news broke that it had written down the value of its Chinese marketplace, Zhaopin, as economic conditions continue to weaken. In New Zealand, the NZX 50 fell -1.1%.
Iron Ore and Crude up, Gold down
WTI Crude gained +0.9% to US$78.26/bbl, Gold fell -1.7% to US$2,357.50, and Iron Ore rose +0.4% to US$107.47/MT.
NZ Headlines
Mainfreight has again criticised the move to cancel the Cook Strait ferry project and is miffed why it was left out of decision-making on the issue. The NZX-listed freight and logistics company held its annual meeting in Auckland this afternoon at which NBR Lister and chair Bruce Plested said that Mainfreight should have been consulted on the Cook Strait cancellation, given its reliance on the route.
Santana Minerals believes about 60% of the value of the gold in the ground at its key Bendigo-Ophir project in Central Otago will be “returned to the New Zealand economy” in one way or another if it’s able to extract it.
Rakon has lost its second chief financial officer within nine months, with Drew Davies’ resignation “with immediate effect” notified to the NZX.
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- GEN AGM