23 July Markets at a glance
Around the grounds
Australian investors are back on the bandwagon, with shares recovering yesterday’s lost ground to snap a three-session losing streak with bank and tech shares leading the charge.
Miners are higher, despite Dalian futures slumping 1%, while energy stocks are tracking the price of oil lower. Brent crude futures are down around 0.1% while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) has lost some 0.14% per barrel.
Safe haven gold though has come back a touch, gaining around 0.4% after two sessions of falls.
In currency markets, the Australian dollar is struggling for direction, hovering near multi-week lows after yesterday’s surprise move by the PBOC to cut rates. More broadly, the FX market is adrift, as traders look to key central bank meetings from the FOMC and BOJ next week.
In the news
It’s all about quarter reports in today’s trade. Shares of Woodside Energy (WDS) are lower for a second day as the company flags a 4% increase in the estimated cost of its Scarborough gas project to $12.5 billion.
Revenue was slightly higher in the period, but the quarterly average realised price of oil per barrel fell 2% from the previous quarter to $62.
WDS stock is down 8% year to date, as of last close.
Australian listed shares of Lynas Rare Earths (LYC) are also lower after posting an over 13% drop in fourth-quarter revenue as higher Chinese production piled more pressure on prices. Total output for rare earth oxide took a 50% plunge. Stock is down 15.5% YTD as of last close.
Atlas Arteria (ALX) shares are higher as the toll road operator says its quarterly weighted average toll revenue jumped 4.6% on PCP driven by a rebound in its Chicago Skyway traffic thanks to robust light vehicle traffic.
Shares though are down over 11% YTD, as of last close.
Finally, Insignia Financial (IFL) shares are a bright spot in today’s trade, nearing a one-year high the brokers swoop in after IFL expects FY24 results to exceed its upgraded outlook provided in February. Citi upgrading the stock to ‘neutral’ from ‘sell’, hiking the price target to AU$2.65 per share up from the AU$2.20 previously.
JP Morgan has also upped its price target to AU$3.36 from AU$3.15, ‘overweight’ rating retained.
The stock is up around 6.8% this year as of last close.
Going global
To the global stage, stocks around the region are also higher, recovering from one-month lows taking cues from that Wall Street recovery overnight.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan are up around half a percent, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 has steadied bolstered by chip stocks.
Global investors are sitting on the sidelines, brushing off US President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race and instead focusing on earnings from tech titans Tesla and Google and the Fed’s key interest rate decision next week.
Markets have nearly fully priced in two rate cuts from the FOMC slated for the second half of this year according to the CME FedWatch Tool. US futures have come back online and are signalling a marginally negative start when the US trading session gets underway.
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