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Market Opener – 21 Feb 2019
Local Markets Commentary
The Australian market opens today’s trade ahead of influential domestic data, with an additional swag of high-profile domestic stocks reporting earnings and following some overnight price rallies for key commodities.
Locally today, January employment statistics are due 11.30am AEDT.
EVN, GWA and JBH are among stocks trading ex-dividend. Please see pp4-5 for details.
Regionally, a preliminary February manufacturing PMI is due for Japan, also at 11.30am.
In overnight commodities trade, oil rallied.
US gold futures (April) slightly extended Tuesday’s strong gain.
Iron ore (China port, 62% Fe) fell, but remained firmly above $US85/bbl.
LME copper and other key base metals rallied.
The $A traded in a relatively narrow range after trading at ~US71.65c early yesterday evening.
Overseas Market Commentary
Volatility appeared during choppy overnight US equities trade. Major European equities markets were dragged higher by generally positive sentiment, but again in choppy trade.
The US president repeated his assertion US-China trade talks were progressing sufficiently for him to consider pushing back planned 1 March tax increases on imports from China.
In the UK, three conservative (ruling party) parliamentarians defected to join a new group formed by the seven labour party parliamentarians who resigned earlier this week. All want the UK to remain within the European Union (EU).
The UK PM in the meantime was in Brussels, talking again to EU heads, requesting legally-binding change so that temporary UK-Ireland border arrangements would not transition to a permanent link to EU regulations.
US Federal Reserve January policy minutes, reported during second-half US trade, confirmed general consensus for a policy stay, given economic growth risks, in part due to broad international policy uncertainty, plus ongoing relatively weak inflation growth.
Among data releases, euro zone consumer confidence estimate improved by 0.5 to -7.4.
Germany’s January producer prices rose 0.4% for the month after declining 0.4% in December. Year-on-year, prices were 2.6% higher.
US weekly mortgage applications rose 3.6%.
Tonight in the US, December durable goods orders, the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index, January existing home sales, February Markit manufacturing and services PMIs, a Conference Board leading index report and weekly new unemployment claims are due.
Elsewhere, European Central Bank January policy meeting minutes, a final January CPI reading for Germany and euro zone PMIs are expected.
Companies scheduled to report earnings later today or tonight include: AXA, BAE Systems, Baidu, Barclays, Caesars Entertainment, Dropbox, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hochtief, Intuit, Kraft Heinz, Newmont Mining, Serco, Veolia and Wendy’s.
In overnight corporate news, Glencore declared it was planning to constrain coal production in the wake of significant investor concern.
Glencore also reported a full year profit that undershot expectations, but said it planned a new $US2B buy-back.
In the US, CVS Health’s 2019 profit outlook, which included the phrase ‘significant additional deterioration’ in association with residential care, disappointed, the stock falling ~8% despite quarterly profit that exceed expectations.
Earlier, UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s plans to acquire ASDA, owned by Walmart, were placed in jeopardy by a UK competition regulation assessment, pushing Sainsbury 15% lower.
The Australian market opens today’s trade ahead of influential domestic data, with an additional swag of high-profile domestic stocks reporting earnings and following some overnight price rallies for key commodities.
Locally today, January employment statistics are due 11.30am AEDT.
EVN, GWA and JBH are among stocks trading ex-dividend. Please see pp4-5 for details.
Regionally, a preliminary February manufacturing PMI is due for Japan, also at 11.30am.
In overnight commodities trade, oil rallied.
US gold futures (April) slightly extended Tuesday’s strong gain.
Iron ore (China port, 62% Fe) fell, but remained firmly above $US85/bbl.
LME copper and other key base metals rallied.
The $A traded in a relatively narrow range after trading at ~US71.65c early yesterday evening.
Overseas Market Commentary
Volatility appeared during choppy overnight US equities trade. Major European equities markets were dragged higher by generally positive sentiment, but again in choppy trade.
The US president repeated his assertion US-China trade talks were progressing sufficiently for him to consider pushing back planned 1 March tax increases on imports from China.
In the UK, three conservative (ruling party) parliamentarians defected to join a new group formed by the seven labour party parliamentarians who resigned earlier this week. All want the UK to remain within the European Union (EU).
The UK PM in the meantime was in Brussels, talking again to EU heads, requesting legally-binding change so that temporary UK-Ireland border arrangements would not transition to a permanent link to EU regulations.
US Federal Reserve January policy minutes, reported during second-half US trade, confirmed general consensus for a policy stay, given economic growth risks, in part due to broad international policy uncertainty, plus ongoing relatively weak inflation growth.
Among data releases, euro zone consumer confidence estimate improved by 0.5 to -7.4.
Germany’s January producer prices rose 0.4% for the month after declining 0.4% in December. Year-on-year, prices were 2.6% higher.
US weekly mortgage applications rose 3.6%.
Tonight in the US, December durable goods orders, the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index, January existing home sales, February Markit manufacturing and services PMIs, a Conference Board leading index report and weekly new unemployment claims are due.
Elsewhere, European Central Bank January policy meeting minutes, a final January CPI reading for Germany and euro zone PMIs are expected.
Companies scheduled to report earnings later today or tonight include: AXA, BAE Systems, Baidu, Barclays, Caesars Entertainment, Dropbox, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hochtief, Intuit, Kraft Heinz, Newmont Mining, Serco, Veolia and Wendy’s.
In overnight corporate news, Glencore declared it was planning to constrain coal production in the wake of significant investor concern.
Glencore also reported a full year profit that undershot expectations, but said it planned a new $US2B buy-back.
In the US, CVS Health’s 2019 profit outlook, which included the phrase ‘significant additional deterioration’ in association with residential care, disappointed, the stock falling ~8% despite quarterly profit that exceed expectations.
Earlier, UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s plans to acquire ASDA, owned by Walmart, were placed in jeopardy by a UK competition regulation assessment, pushing Sainsbury 15% lower.