The market continues to react to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Photo / Getty Images
Keeping you up to date with the latest market moves, in association with Investment firm Jarden
New Zealand
The NZX 50 remained in the green yesterday, improving 1.2 per cent at 11,926.26 points.
Following a decline on Wednesday EROAD bounced back, increasing 10.9 per cent. Pacific Edge resumed its incline, closing 6.9 per cent higher. Serko rallied up 4.7 per cent, an improvement on Monday's low point.
Genesis Energy led yesterday's underperformers, falling 2.4 per cent. Freightways and Sky Network Television declined 2.1 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively.
Yesterday's top and bottom performer movements do not appear to be linked to any specific announcements from the companies.
ASB's Housing Confidence Survey indicates that housing confidence has fallen to a 26-year low. The three-month survey, which concluded in January, found a significant majority of people believe it is not a good time to buy a house.
Statistics New Zealand has reported that retail spending has been hit hard by Omicron, down 8.0 per cent in February from January. Last month's $640 million decline in debit and credit card spending was the first month-on-month fall in spending since the lockdown in August 2021.
Yesterday MBIE published that New Zealand has a 90.7 per cent renewable energy share of electricity generation. This is 6.4 per cent higher than the previous year and represents a 26-year high. This 2021 final quarter result is attributed to sizeable increases in wind and hydro energy generation by the gentailers.
International
US
All major US indices were in the red at the time of writing following their jump yesterday. The S&P 500 was down 1.5 per cent, the NASDAQ dropped 2.2 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.3 per cent at the time of writing.
The only sector that increased was energy and was up 2.8 per cent. The biggest falls came from technology (-3.2 per cent), communications (-1.7 per cent) and consumer staples (-1.7 per cent).
Oil and natural gas service provider Halliburton Company jumped up 5.5 per cent. Halliburton Company was a key driver for the energy sector finishing in the green but is still 6.0 per cent down from its high this week.
Energy and technology company Baker Hughes had the next biggest increase, jumping 5.2 per cent at the time of writing. Baker Hughes has been given a contract to provide a liquefied natural gas (LNG) system to Venture Global LNG for their upcoming Plaquemines in Louisiana.
After announcing a 20-for-1 stock split and a US$10 billion stock buyback, Amazon jumped 4.8 per cent. This still leaves Amazon 14.0 per cent down from the start of the year.
The biggest fall at the time of writing was Solaredge Technologies Inc, with a 7.0 per cent decline. This drop brings Solaredge Technologies back to their price at the start of the week. Online marketplace provider Etsy dropped 6.4 per cent at the time of writing. This follows the announcement that Etsy is increasing selling fees and continues the company's more than 30.0 per cent decline from the start of the year.
Rounding out the top decliners is semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices Inc, which dropped 6.1 per cent. This follows bugs and stuttering issues that have been reported on some of their premium products. Advanced Micro Devices has acknowledged these problems.
Rest of the World
The Asian indices reversed from yesterday and all closed in the green as oil prices eased off recent highs. The Shanghai Composite increased 1.2 per cent, the Nikkei closed 4.0 per cent up and the Hang Seng rose 1.3 per cent.
European indices had all major indices in the red. The FTSE dropped 1.3 per cent, the DAX was down 3.0 per cent and the CAC fell 2.8 per cent.
Russia's MOEX remains closed, bringing the pause of trading in the exchange to nine days running.
Commodities
After its highly volatile week, oil price rises appear to have slowed yesterday, declining 0.1 per cent at the time of writing.
Wheat continued to ease off earlier gains, down 8.0 per cent at the time of writing. However, it remains over 55.0 per cent above the price it traded at the start of the year.
Similarly, movements in metals are minor compared to the previous few days of volatility, with gold increasing 0.6 per cent. Nickel remains in the spotlight as the London Metal Exchange continues to prevent trades.
All cryptocurrencies in the top 30 by market capitalization were in the red. Bitcoin and Ethereum dropped 7.4 and 5.7 per cent respectively.
The US 10-year Treasury rate continues its climb, jumping seven basis points today to 2.02 per cent. This is 30 basis points higher than the start of the week.
Australia
The ASX 200 continued its positive performance from Wednesday, rising 1.1 per cent to 7,130.80 yesterday.
Sector performance was mixed with eight of 11 sectors increasing. Information technology (+3.3 per cent) was the leader for the second day in a row followed by consumer discretionary (+2.9 per cent). Conversely, energy (-2.5 per cent) and materials (-1.8 per cent) were underperformers.
Paladin Energy (+11.0 per cent) continued its strong performance from Wednesday after announcing a change in substantial holding yesterday. Location-based services company Life360 (+6.8 per cent) and Flight Centre Travel Group (+6.6 per cent) were the other top performers of the day.
Nickel Mines was the largest laggard dropping a further 13.2 per cent and continuing a volatile week. The company's daily trading volume (107 million) was almost half that of Wednesday's (212 million) but remained higher than its average (13 million). The London Metal Exchange continues to prevent nickel trades. Mining company Rio Tinto (-7.7 per cent) and Beach Energy (-5.9 per cent) were also in the red.
Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Guy Debelle, announced his resignation yesterday. After 25 years at RBA, Debelle will be taking up the position of Chief Financial Officer of Fortescue Future Industries in June.
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