Wall St aims to recover as stocks rise to start final Aug trading week

Stocks rose Monday to kick off the final trading week of August, with Wall Street looking to regain ground amid a month of losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 213.08 points, or 0.62 per cent, to close at 34,559.98. The S&P 500 climbed 0.63 per cent to 4,433.31, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.84 per cent to finish the session at 13,705.13. All three indexes have lost ground in August, with the S&P 500 shedding 3.4 per cent. The Nasdaq and Dow have slipped about 4.5 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively.

Meta and Apple traded slightly higher, while Nvidia added 1.8 per cent. Shares of electric vehicle giant Tesla inched up 0.1 per cent.

Those moves come as tech tries to regain its footing late in August. The information technology sector of the S&P 500 is down 4.6 per cent for the month.

Outside of tech, shares of 3M popped more than 5 per cent a day after a Bloomberg News report, citing sources familiar, said that the company was ready to settle lawsuits alleging some earplugs were faulty.

Stocks are coming off a winning session following fresh remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. On Friday, Powell pointed to some signs of continued economic growth and strong consumer spending, but indicated that the central bank would “proceed carefully” with additional hikes.

As of Monday morning, traders were pricing a more than 20 per cent chance that the Fed will raise rates again at its upcoming September meeting, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Investors are also eyeing the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures index, due out on Thursday, followed by fresh non-farm payroll data Friday morning.

Turning to commodities, the Indian Prime Minister warns of potential new colonialism if countries possessing critical minerals don't adopt custodianship as a global duty, highlighting concerns over uncertain availability of these minerals for the clean energy transition; China dominated around 70 per cent of global rare earth mine production and over 85 per cent of processing capacity in FY/2022.

Europe has lost its position as the world’s largest offshore wind market to the Asia-Pacific region led by China, as a result of rising costs and supply chain disruptions, the global industry group has found. Europe contributed 47 per cent of global offshore wind capacity in 2022, compared to the Asia-Pacific region's 53 per cent, a shift from Europe's 2021 dominance of 50 per cent in total installations, according to the Global Wind Energy Council.

On the China front, Chinese stocks surged on Monday following the government's announcement of measures, including halving the stamp duty on securities transactions to 0.05 per cent and implementing limits on new listings, aimed at revitalising the capital market and bolstering investor confidence.

Turning to sectors, Monday’s rally was broad: Ten of the 11 sectors in the S&P 500 were positive. Utilities was the worst performer, closing down by 0.03 per cent.

Futures

The SPI futures are pointing to a 0.4 per cent gain.

Currency

One Australian dollar at 7:25 AM was buying 64.29 US cents.

Commodities

Gold gained 0.36 per cent. Silver rose 0.09 per cent. Copper added 0.21 per cent. Oil gained 0.34 per cent.

Figures around the globe

European markets closed higher. Frankfurt gained 1.03 per cent, Paris closed 1.32 per cent higher while London’s FTSE was closed.

Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei gained 1.73 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.97 per cent while China’s Shanghai Composite closed 1.13 per cent higher.

The Australian sharemarket closed 0.63 per cent higher at 7,160

Ex-dividends

Bega Cheese (ASX:BGA) is paying 3 cents fully franked
HMC Capital (ASX:HMC) is paying 6 cents 10 per cent franked
Insurance Australia (ASX:IAG) is paying 9 cents 30 per cent franked
MA Financial Group (ASX:MAF) is paying 6 cents fully franked
Mitchell Services (ASX:MSV) is paying 2.08 cents 50.76 per cent franked
Pengana Capital (ASX:PCG) is paying 1 cent fully franked
Regal Partners (ASX:RPL) is paying 5 cents fully franked
Sunland Group (ASX:SDG) is paying 11 cents fully franked
The Lottery Corp (ASX:TLC) is paying 6 cents fully franked
Worley (ASX:WOR) is paying 25 cents unfranked

Sources: Bloomberg, FactSet, IRESS, TradingView, UBS, Bourse Data, Trading Economics, CoinMarketCap.

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