Volatile trading has been seen in US stocks this morning. Photo / AP
Keeping you up to date with the latest market moves, in association with Investment firm Jarden
International
US
Compared to the start of the year, last week's trading ended with the Nasdaq, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average, down 22.3, 13.9, and 9.9 per cent, respectively. This generated a lot of discussion among the markets at the weekend, concerning the direction performance would take this week. Volatile trading has been seen in US stocks this morning. At the time of writing, the Nasdaq, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen a further 0.4, 1.1, and 1.1 per cent, respectively.
Sector performances were primarily in the red with real estate, consumer staples and materials falling 3.9, 2.3 and 1.9 per cent, respectively. The only sector in the green was communication services, up 0.3 per cent.
Leading the outperformers was biotechnology company Moderna, up 5.3 per cent at of the time of writing. This follows an announcement that its new Covid-19 vaccine for children under 6 will be ready for appraisal come June.
Digital services provider Epam Systems rose 4.8 per cent. This may be due to upgrades by US stock analysts, having reviewed software performance.
Align Technology, a medical device manufacturer, increased 4.5 per cent following the announcement of a US$200 million ($310.9m) share buyback.
Leading the S&P 500 lower was Global Payments. The software and services provider fell 10.4 per cent. This followed a better-than-expected earnings report which exceeded many US-based analyst predictions. In the same report, Global Payments made projections for their performance under the expectation of a major US economic recovery in the coming quarters. The decrease may be connected to investors' confidence in those expectations.
The information storage company, Iron Mountain, saw shares decrease 6.5 per cent.
Rounding out the underperformers was risk assessment company Moody's Corp, down 6.0 per cent. The company recently reduced its full-year earnings guidance range from US$12.40-$12.90 to US$10.75-$11.25 per share.
Rest of the world
Asia market performance was mixed overnight. The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite increased 4.0 and 2.4 per cent, respectively, while the Nikkei declined 0.1 per cent.
European markets have also seen varied performance. The FTSE rose 0.5 per cent while the CAC and DAX fell 1.7 and 1.1 per cent, respectively.
Commodities
Commodity performance has started strong this week, with WTI Crude Oil increased 0.4 per cent to US$105.08 per barrel, at the time of writing.
Conversely, metal futures are tending lower, with gold down 2.4 per cent to US$1865.70 per ounce.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are up 1.3 and 1.1 per cent, respectively.
Following robust growth last month, the US 10-year treasury yield has continued to rise, sitting at 2.98 per cent at the time of writing. Earlier in the day's trading, it had cleared 3.0 per cent, a figure not seen since 2018. Likely contributing to investor speculation is the Federal Open Market Committee's stance on monetary policy, due to be released later this week.
New Zealand
The NZX50 had a poor start to the week, dropping 0.8 per cent yesterday.
Electricity provider Trustpower was the standout performer, closing 2.4 per cent higher. This follows an announcement that rival gentailer Mercury NZ's acquisition of Trustpower's retail business for $467m is now unconditional. The combined firm will have just shy of 800,000 connections and enable Mercury to offer multi-product bundles across electricity, fixed broadband, wireless broadband, and gas. Mercury, which also floated capital bonds worth $200m, traded flat at $6.06.
Trustpower will focus solely on generation with a revised name to Manawa Energy. The company's ticker will change from TPW to MNW. Infrastructure investment company Infratil, which owns 51 per cent of Trustpower, closed in the red (-0.7 per cent).
Transportation technology company EROAD (+1.9 per cent) and Argosy Property (+1.5 per cent) outperformed.
On the other hand, Stride Property dropped 4.0 per cent. Engineered product company Skellerup Holdings declined 3.7 per cent. Retail firm The Warehouse Group slid 3.2 per cent to round out yesterday's largest underperformers.
In a new report titled Rautaki Hanganga o Aotearoa – New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy 2022–2052, the Infrastructure Commission unveiled an array of recommendations, including congestion charges, water meters, reduced waste and streamlined consenting. The report also highlighted that achieving New Zealand's net zero carbon target will require a 170 per cent rise in the country's electricity generation capacity.
Australia
The ASX 200 closed lower yesterday, dropping 1.2 per cent to 7347 points.
All 11 sectors closed in the red last night. Information technology and Australian real estate investment trusts had the largest drops, down 4.0 and 3.8 per cent respectively.
Top performer Pointsbet Holdings rose 5.7 per cent.
Qantas Airways was the next gainer, with a 2.9 per cent rise following an announcement of major aircraft orders, including 12 Airbus A350-1000s to operate non-stop flights from Australia to destinations including London and New York from FY26 – which the company has called 'Project Sunrise'.
The airline also released their third quarter trading update, continuing expectations of underlying EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) between A$450m ($493.3m) and A$550m for FY22 and announcing the shrinking of debt to pre-Covid levels by the end of April 2022.
The third largest increase came from Chalice Mining, up 2.2 per cent with news of new growth potential in the Gonneville Resource.
On the flip side, Imugene fell 13.6 per cent. The oncology focused biopharmaceutical company released a termination of its supply agreement with MSD, an American biopharmaceutical company.
Pro Medicus lost 7.8 per cent and Wisetech Global decreased 7.3 per cent.
All eyes are on today's Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) board meeting, from which the governor, Steve Lowe, is expected to announce a raise in interest rates following the 5.1 per cent inflation rate announced last Thursday. Many economists have been pushing for a rate hike despite the nearing election, they have said that it would solidify the RBA's independence from politics and confirm their credibility. However, the RBA also faces a credibility challenge on whether to wait for further evidence on labour costs before increasing rates, as per its guidance four weeks ago.
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