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Before making any investment decision, you should seek the relevant advice.
Market Opener – 21 May 2019
Local Markets Commentary
The Australian market opens today’s trade ahead of the release of Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) policy meeting minutes and a speech by the RBA governor, following overnight falls across key international equities markets.
In addition, counting has confirmed the Australian government has been returned in the past weekend’s election with a majority.
RBA governor Philip Lowe speaks on The Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy at an Economic Society of Australia lunch in Brisbane 1.10pm AEST.
The RBA publishes the minutes from the 7 May policy meeting prior to this, at 11.30am.
A weekly consumer sentiment reading is also due today, pre-trade.
In addition, AST trades ex-dividend. Please see p4 for a detailed list.
In overnight commodities trade, WTI crude settled higher, but Brent lower.
US gold futures (June) turned to close slightly higher.
LME copper, nickel and aluminium continued variously lower.
The $A retreated below US69.10c after trading at ~US69.35c early yesterday evening.
In addition, counting has confirmed the Australian government has been returned in the past weekend’s election with a majority.
RBA governor Philip Lowe speaks on The Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy at an Economic Society of Australia lunch in Brisbane 1.10pm AEST.
The RBA publishes the minutes from the 7 May policy meeting prior to this, at 11.30am.
A weekly consumer sentiment reading is also due today, pre-trade.
In addition, AST trades ex-dividend. Please see p4 for a detailed list.
In overnight commodities trade, WTI crude settled higher, but Brent lower.
US gold futures (June) turned to close slightly higher.
LME copper, nickel and aluminium continued variously lower.
The $A retreated below US69.10c after trading at ~US69.35c early yesterday evening.
Overseas Market Commentary
Major European and US equities markets opened lower overnight and mostly chopped through their respective sessions as several geopolitical scenarios simmered.
The US president threatened Iran not to threaten the US, following a rocket explosion not far from the US embassy in Baghdad.
Further, he reportedly ordered further military craft and personnel to the Middle East.
Both US houses of parliament are set to be briefed on the US-Iran situation tonight after Iran responded angrily to the US president’s verbal threat, and following warnings from both Saudi Arabia and the UK.
Over the weekend, China revealed it was hesitant to resume any formal trade negotiations with the US until it altered its stance.
Overnight, the US president countered stating a 50-50 deal was not under consideration by the US.
Google in the meantime had revealed it would restrict Huawei device access, including Android updates and access to technical services, this underscoring the position of computer component stocks, pushing these, in particular chip manufacturers, lower.
The US administration has subsequently eased, for three months, some of the restrictions imposed last week, in part in order to maintain networks.
In addition overnight, Germany’s central bank Bundesbank warned June quarter GDP was unlikely to grow as it had during the March quarter.
In the UK, parliamentarians expressed scepticism regarding the PM’s plan to present a ‘bold’ new proposal for arrangements governing the UK’s separation from the European Union (EU) later this year.
Parliament retires at the end of this week and will not resume until 4 June, the week in which the PM has proposed a vote on the new plan.
New data releases included Germany’s April producer prices, which rose 0.5% for the month and 2.5% year-on-year. Prices had pulled back by 0.1% during March.
In the US, the Chicago Fed’s national activity index was calculated at -0.45, against 0.05 for March.
Tonight in the US, April existing home sales are due.
Elsewhere, the Bank of England (BoE) governor and other officials were due to meet with a treasury committee tonight to explain the recent inflation report and other expectations, but this was postponed to a date-to-be-determined last night.
Meanwhile, European Parliament elections, in which the UK must participate, commence Thursday. Plenty of commentary is anticipated after related discussions in the UK parliament overnight resulted in uproar and the demotion of a former deputy PM.
Companies due to report earnings later today or tonight include: AutoZone Inc, Home Depot, JC Penney, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Shaftesbury, TJX, Toll Brothers and Urban Outfitters.
In overnight corporate news, Ford Motor announced 7000 jobs would be cut within ~three months, 2300 of these in the US. This followed a March announcement that 5000 jobs were being cut in Germany.
Sprint and T-Mobile effectively gained US regulatory approval for their proposed $US26B merger.
The US president threatened Iran not to threaten the US, following a rocket explosion not far from the US embassy in Baghdad.
Further, he reportedly ordered further military craft and personnel to the Middle East.
Both US houses of parliament are set to be briefed on the US-Iran situation tonight after Iran responded angrily to the US president’s verbal threat, and following warnings from both Saudi Arabia and the UK.
Over the weekend, China revealed it was hesitant to resume any formal trade negotiations with the US until it altered its stance.
Overnight, the US president countered stating a 50-50 deal was not under consideration by the US.
Google in the meantime had revealed it would restrict Huawei device access, including Android updates and access to technical services, this underscoring the position of computer component stocks, pushing these, in particular chip manufacturers, lower.
The US administration has subsequently eased, for three months, some of the restrictions imposed last week, in part in order to maintain networks.
In addition overnight, Germany’s central bank Bundesbank warned June quarter GDP was unlikely to grow as it had during the March quarter.
In the UK, parliamentarians expressed scepticism regarding the PM’s plan to present a ‘bold’ new proposal for arrangements governing the UK’s separation from the European Union (EU) later this year.
Parliament retires at the end of this week and will not resume until 4 June, the week in which the PM has proposed a vote on the new plan.
New data releases included Germany’s April producer prices, which rose 0.5% for the month and 2.5% year-on-year. Prices had pulled back by 0.1% during March.
In the US, the Chicago Fed’s national activity index was calculated at -0.45, against 0.05 for March.
Tonight in the US, April existing home sales are due.
Elsewhere, the Bank of England (BoE) governor and other officials were due to meet with a treasury committee tonight to explain the recent inflation report and other expectations, but this was postponed to a date-to-be-determined last night.
Meanwhile, European Parliament elections, in which the UK must participate, commence Thursday. Plenty of commentary is anticipated after related discussions in the UK parliament overnight resulted in uproar and the demotion of a former deputy PM.
Companies due to report earnings later today or tonight include: AutoZone Inc, Home Depot, JC Penney, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Shaftesbury, TJX, Toll Brothers and Urban Outfitters.
In overnight corporate news, Ford Motor announced 7000 jobs would be cut within ~three months, 2300 of these in the US. This followed a March announcement that 5000 jobs were being cut in Germany.
Sprint and T-Mobile effectively gained US regulatory approval for their proposed $US26B merger.