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ASX steps up after Wall Street rallies
By Jessica Yun and Millie Muroi
Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day.
The numbers
Real estate investment trusts, utilities and financials lifted the Australian sharemarket on Monday following a positive lead from Wall Street over the weekend.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index ended 53.4 points, or 0.7 per cent, higher at 7682.4, with eight of the 11 major sectors advancing.
Wall Street capped a choppy week of trading Friday with the best day for the stock market in over two months.Credit: Reuters
The lifters
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) was the strongest sector with a gain of 1.7 per cent. Goodman Group shares rose 4.1 per cent while Stockland added 0.9 per cent and Scentre Group 0.6 per cent.
Gains in all four of the big banks saw the financials sector advance 1 per cent. Westpac’s shares were boosted 2.7 per cent after the bank reported a net profit of $3.3 billion and a special dividend of 15¢ a share.
Qantas shares edged 0.3 per cent higher despite the company revealing it had reached a $120 million settlement with the competition regulator, with $20 million of that to be pocketed by more than 86,000 Australians as compensation payments.
RBC analyst Owen Birrell said the penalty would decrease the carrier’s earnings by less than 1 per cent, and the settlement was an “incremental positive, removing another post-COVID brand and valuation overhang from the stock”.
Shares in data centre operator NEXTDC rose 3.1 per cent to be the biggest large-cap advancer. Iron ore miner Fortescue also jumped 2.6 per cent, while mining giants BHP (up 0.8 per cent) and Rio Tinto (up 0.3 per cent) also advanced to give a boost to the benchmark index.
The best performer was pathology tester Healius, which saw its shares advance 6.5 per cent. Nickel Industries shares also rose 3.7 per cent.
The laggards
Industrials, consumer staples and healthcare were the weakest sectors.
Afterpay owner Block was the worst performer, with its shares slumping 9.3 per cent. Audinate Group fell 4.8 per cent and Spark New Zealand dipped 4.2 per cent.
Shares in online retailer Kogan slid 2.5 per cent after ASX compliance officials queried the company about the sale of $17.4 million in options held by chief executive Ruslan Kogan and chief financial officer David Shafer back to the company on April 4.
The lowdown
All eyes will be on the Reserve Bank on Tuesday as it weighs up whether to push through another interest-rate increase. Judo Bank thinks it is a possibility. Persistently high inflation may also force the central bank to lift its inflation forecasts.
“A rate hike cannot be ruled out this week, given that the RBA Governor has said it has no tolerance for upside surprises on inflation,” wrote the bank’s chief economic advisor Warren Hogan and economist Matthew De Pasquale in a note to clients.
“Australia’s interest rate is below the level of similar economies and the ‘higher-for-longer’ theme overseas will add to the likelihood that Australia’s interest rate will rise towards 5 per cent at some stage this year.”
Wall Street capped a choppy week of trading on Friday with its best day in more than two months, as traders welcomed cooler-than-expected US employment data as a sign that inflationary pressures on the economy are easing.
The S&P 500 Index rose 1.3 per cent – its best day since late February. The benchmark index also erased its losses for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2 per cent while the Nasdaq Composite Index ended 2 per cent higher, reflecting strong gains by technology sector stocks, which accounted for much of the rally.
The nation’s employers added 175,000 jobs last month, down sharply from the blockbuster increase of 315,000 in March, according to the Labor Department.
The latest hiring tally came in well below the 233,000 gain that economists had predicted. Meanwhile, average hourly earnings, a key driver of inflation, rose less than expected.
The modest increase in hiring last month suggests the Federal Reserve’s aggressive streak of rate hikes may be finally starting to take a bigger toll on the world’s largest economy. That may help reassure the Fed that inflation will ease further, which could move the central bank closer to lowering interest rates.
Treasury yields in the bond market mostly fell following the jobs report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which lenders use as a guide for pricing home loans, eased to 4.5 per cent from 4.59 per cent late Thursday. The two-year yield, which moves more closely with expectations for the Fed, fell to 4.81 per cent from 4.88 per cent.
Tweet of the day
Quote of the day
“It’s a small thing, but it’s not just a chicken schnitzel at The Manly. It’s a parmesan and herb crusted schnitzel.”
That’s Endeavour chief executive Steve Donohue, who revealed group sales rose by 2.2 per cent, or an adjusted 1 per cent, for the third quarter of 2024, with consumers generally drinking and dining out less amid ongoing cost of living pressures. The boss of the $9.4 billion giant said it was “re-engineering menus to bring better value options … to stay ultra-competitive”.
You may have missed
Optus has a new boss after its mass outage that impacted 10 million customers: the former chief of NBN Co, Stephen Rue.
“Stephen was chosen after a rigorous process that involved a slate of high-quality candidates. We’re extremely pleased to have someone of his calibre to lead the next chapter at Optus,” said Optus chairman Paul Sullivan.
With AP
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