Wall St slips on tech, iron ore suffers as oil jumps: ASX to dip

 

The Australian share market is to dip following Wall St’s volatile week of trade. The Dow Jones was the only index against its peers to close in the black on Friday as inflation fears lingered amid the digital currency price of Bitcoin which slumped under pressure. The Dow Jones took-off with plane manufacturer Boeing rose 3.1 per cent on plans to boom output to as high as 42 aircrafts per month. The index was further supported by gains in Financials, Materials and Energy sectors while Consumer Discretionary led the decline. The S&P 500 notched a loss for its second consecutive week led by a sell-off in technology shares while the sentiment was the same in the tech heavy Nasdaq. Bitcoin’s bumpy ride sent crypto-related stocks tumbling as Chinese authorities crackdown on crypto mining. Despite the tug-of-war between growth and valued stocks, investors enjoyed the positive US manufacturing activity figures which surged to a record high this month. On a not so positive note, iron ore prices fell 4.4 per cent over the week with mining heavyweights drilled down into negative territory. On Friday bond yields had little change while oil prices jumped over 2 per cent on news a hurricane may disrupt supply on the Gulf of Mexico, gold prices dipped as the Aussie dollar was weaker against the greenback. Back home, investors will be keeping a close eye on a few speeches by the US Federal Reserve which has a policymaker set to speak at a virtual cryptocurrency conference at the end of this week.

Figures around the globe

Wall Street closed mixed on Friday: The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4 per cent to close at 34,208, the S&P 500 fell 0.1 per cent to 4,156 and the NASDAQ closed 0.5 per cent lower at 13,471.

European markets closed almost higher on upbeat PMI data as mentioned earlier: London’s FTSE lost 0.02 per cent, Paris gained 0.7 per cent and Frankfurt closed 0.4 per cent higher.

Asian markets closed mixed, Nikkei gained 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.03 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite closed 0.6 per cent lower on Friday.

Taking all of this into the equation, the SPI futures are pointing 0.1 per cent fall.

ASX 200

Over the week, the Australian share market closed 16.1 points or 0.23 per cent higher to 7,030 as inflation worries transcended from the US amid concerns on China’s plans to source iron ore away from Australia. The fall in oil prices also pressured the index on reports of the US to lift sanctions against Iran which will return a large supply to the market. The index saw a heavy sell-off on Wednesday though recovered by the end of the week lifted by positive news on the unemployment rate with Information Technology as the best performing sector, up 4.3 per cent as investors viewed the dip as a buying opportunity with Utilities which led the decline down 3.4 per cent. The best performing stock was artificial intelligence company Appen (ASX:APN) soared 19.4 per cent following an organisational restructuring while the worst performing stock was EML Payments (ASX:EML) tumbled 34.6 per cent on regulatory concerns with Irish authorities.

Local economic outlook

The focus this week is the construction data for the March quarter to be released on Wednesday and the business investments and conditions report for May on Thursday from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. On Tuesday is a big day of data, the ABS is to release the preliminary April figures on international trade in goods, the weekly payroll jobs and wages report for week ending 8 May. Also they are set to issue a new publication called measuring non-discretionary and discretionary inflation. Also  ANZ-Roy Morgan is to issue the weekly consumer sentiment report.

Mini earnings season

Monday – Aristocrat (ASX:ALL)
Tuesday – Technology One (ASX:TNE)
Wednesday – ALS (ASX:ALQ), Mesoblast (ASX:MSB)

AGMs scheduled

Tuesday – Alumina (ASX:AWC), Freedom Foods (ASX:FNP)
Wednesday – Viva Energy (ASX:VEA)
Thursday – Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR), Costco (ASX:CGC), Spark Infrastructure (ASX:SKI), Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG)
Friday – InvoCare (ASX:IVC), Appen (ASX:APX)

Overseas economic outlook

The focus in the US is their second estimate of Q1 GDP figures to be released on Thursday and personal income and outlays on Friday. President Biden's FY2022 budget is due to be released on Friday which will include information on which programs will expand or cut covering foreign aid to immigration and policing.

IPOs

Today chemicals, logistics and waste management group DGL (ASX:DGL) is set to ring the bell at 10.30am (AEST) in Melbourne after raising $100 million at $1.00 per share. The company is expected to have a market capitalization of $257 million upon listing. Tomorrow, we have two companies penciled in, Pepper Money (ASX:PPM) with an expected market capitalization of $1.3 billion joined by banking and financial services company BSP Financial (ASX:BFL). On Thursday, Flynn Gold (ASX:FG1) is scheduled.

Ex-Dividends

Centuria Capital (ASX:CNI) is paying 5.5 cents 38.18 per cent franked.
Dalrymple Bay (ASX:DBI) is paying 4.5 cents unfranked.
Elders Limited (ASX:ELD) is paying 20 cents 20 per cent franked.
Primewest (ASX:PWG) is paying 2.9 cents 64.48 per cent franked.

Currencies

One Australian Dollar at 7:40 AM was buying 77.29 US cents, 54.60 Pence Sterling, 84.19 Yen and 63.50 Euro cents.

Commodities

Iron Ore has dropped 5.3 per cent to US$200.72.
Iron Ore futures suggest a 6.7 per cent fall.
Gold lost $5.00 to US$1879 an ounce.
Silver was down $0.58 to US$27.49 an ounce.
Oil added $1.64 to US$63.58 a barrel. 
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Source: Finance News Network