The European Commission’s executive arm said Microsoft offered a set of remedies to work around concerns from regulators and some of its closer rivals (including Sony) which included allowing users to steam Activision games purchased on any cloud streaming platform.
With the current US debt ceiling and its political implications being topical, it may be little surprise to see that total US consumer debt hit a new record high, sitting at over US$17 trillion despite the recent pull back in mortgage borrowing increases.
The New York Federal Reserve reported the total increase of US$150b for the quarter to March was mainly due to higher interest rates on existing mortgage facilities.
Western Digital Corp saw the largest hike in the market after merger talks have sped up with Japanese partner Kioxia. The merger in the flash memory business could boost competitiveness against the likes of Samsung after a hard start to the year in the sector after Western Digital have been hit with plunging market demand and over supply to start this year.
Natural Gas company ONEOK was down 8.8 per cent as concerns with the Magellan pipeline deal continue to weigh on the stock. On Sunday it was announced that ONEOK would pay $18.8 billion for Magellan to diversify, but analysts are sceptical, questioning the logic behind the deal as the businesses are quite distinct.
Rest of the World
European markets were mixed as many will be keeping an eye on the result of the presidential election in Turkey after neither the incumbent president or his closest rival have yet to win an outright majority following the first count of votes.
Neither Tayyip Erdogan or his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu have been able to breach the 50 per cent threshold, another vote will therefore need to be cast later in the month.
Lawmakers in the European Parliament have moved one step closer to officially regulating the use of AI after the committee approved the ‘AI Act’ late last week.
Features of the Act include a risk based approach where the use of AI will be regulated against standards of unacceptable to minimal risk profiles. In short, companies who have recently come out with AI products like Microsoft and Amazon will need to abide by these laws for their European operations.
New Zealand
The NZ50 moved sideways throughout Mondays trading with the index finishing down mostly unchanged at 11,937.6 points.
On a day with limited stock specific news, main retractors from the indices’ performance were Hallenstein Glassons (-2.7 per cent) coupled with the duo milk processors/distributors The a2 Milk Company and Synlait Milk who lost 2.1 per cent each.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown made headlines after posting his “letter to this city” on Monday which featured a raft of recommendations and guidelines which he believes will help fix the city’s biggest frustrations including infrastructure, transport, and a review of the councils own systems, among other things.
Of note, Brown mentioned the current $300m deficit in the 2023/24 budget alongside total council debt approaching $11.5bn – further highlighting potential need to divest the Councils stake, or make changes to, assets like Auckland Airport and the Ports of Auckland.
Australia
The ASX200 rose 0.1 per cent on Monday fishing at 7,267.1 points led by a rise in the real estate and mining sectors, up 0.8 per cent, edging out loses seen in the financial sector which was down 0.8 per cent on the day.
Merger and acquistions activity dominated headlines, with Invocare the biggest mover, increasing by 12.1 per cent due to a higher takeover bid of A$1.9 billion by TPG Capital, Australia’s biggest gold mining company.
Newcrest was also up 1.5 per cent after Newport’s takeover is set to go ahead.
Elders fell 13.3 per cent on the day, after half-year profits were released this morning down 46.5 per cent on this time last year and the dividend was cut by 18 per cent.
ANZ also fell 4.0 per cent after trading ex-dividend of 81 cents.
Coming up today
March year-end reporting season will kick of for New Zealand and Australia later in the week. Companies of note reporting earnings include ASX listed James Hardie and Xero alongside NZX participants Serko and Ryman Healthcare.
For more information on the latest market moves, get in touch with Jarden.
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