Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr will announce its decision on the official cash rate at 2pm. Photo / File
Keeping you up to date with the latest market moves, in association with Investment firm Jarden
New Zealand
The NZX 50 broke its downwards streak yesterday, in the green to the tune of 0.6 per cent.
All eyes are on the RBNZ Monetary Policy Review result to be released later today. A 25 basis point rise is priced into the overnight index swaps market and a 50 basis point rise is partially priced in.
Financials and healthcare led the day, each rising 1.2 per cent, while consumer cyclicals and energy both fell 0.3 per cent.
Summerset Group rose 2.7 per cent, the retirement village operator's share price is recovering from a dip earlier in the month.
The a2 Milk Company gained 1.9 per cent. Earlier in the month a2 benefitted from Singles Day, a significant shopping event in the China market.
ANZ increased 1.7 per cent following a recent dip and potentially on the back of an OCR increase expected in New Zealand.
Film entertainment company Vista Group International lost 3.9 per cent. Share rights were exercised yesterday under the company's recognition scheme.
Air New Zealand fell 2.5 per cent. The airline said in a statement they have cancelled more than 1000 flights after the New Zealand government indicated quarantine-free travel is unlikely to recommence with Australia this year, with about 20,000 travellers affected by the cancellations.
Electricity and gas distribution company Vector declined 1.8 per cent.
New Zealand retail spending declined 8.1 per cent in the September 2021 quarter. Hospitality and tourism were the hardest hit, led downwards by the impact of lockdowns. Next quarter's data will be telling to see whether a rebound is driven by reopening, and to what extent.
International
US
Main US indices were trading lower at the time of writing, with fears of potential rate hikes weighing down on tech stocks as the NASDAQ currently trades lower by 1 per cent, followed by the S&P 500 (-0.3 per cent) while the Dow Jones remains unchanged.
Outperforming sectors include energy and financials, which made gains of 2.7 and 1.5 per cent, respectively.
Sector gains were buoyed by impressive performances from energy companies APA Corp and Occidental Petroleum. Both were major benefactors of the recent developments in the international energy arena. This morning, the US government announced it would release oil reserves in a coordinated effort with India, China, South Korea, the UK, and Japan as world leaders look to tackle rising energy prices as they close in on seven-year highs. This increase in supply may have been less than anticipated, while also playing a role in smoothing out industry expectations as the stocks made gains of 6.2 per cent each.
Dollar Tree (+5.8 per cent) rounded out the single stock winners podium at the time of writing. The merchandiser reported its third quarter earnings at the start of the session at 96 cents per share, above market expectations..
On the other hand, markets were weighed down by both the technology and consumer cyclicals sectors which have fallen 1 per cent and 0.9 per cent.
In contrast to Dollar Tree, tech merchandiser Best Buy has lost 15 per cent in this morning's trading. Its third quarter earnings headlines beat expectations but concerns of weakening consumer demand and supply chain cost inflation seem to have outweighed the headline earnings figure.
Medical technology and software company Agilent slipped 6.1 per cent as its FY22 revenue guidance appeared to underwhelm investors. Lastly, another tech company, PTC, lost 5.5 per cent at the time of writing, another major decliner of the day.
Rest of the World
Asian markets were again mixed overnight with the Shanghai Composite and the Nikkei posting gains of 0.2 and 0.1 per cent, respectively. Alternatively, the Hang Seng slipped 1.2 per cent in line with large cap tech stocks Tencent, Alibaba, and Meituan, which all lost over 2 per cent by the close.
Commodities
In commodities, at the time of writing, gold was trading lower by 1.3 per cent at US$1,782.60 per ounce. WTI crude oil pushed higher for the second day, now priced at US$78.10 per barrel, moving with the flow of recent international energy reserve developments mentioned above. Yields continued to lift in the wake of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's renomination, the US 10-year treasury rate now priced at 1.65 per cent.
Crypto and Ethereum both have posted gains over the last 24-hour period, up 2.4 and 6.3 per cent to US$57,429 and US$4,332, respectively.
Australia
The ASX 200 reversed Monday's trend and closed 0.8 per cent higher after Tuesday's session.
The rising index was mainly driven by energy (+2.7 per cent) and materials (+2.4 per cent). Only three out of its 11 sectors were underperforming, namely information technology (-3.5 per cent), telecommunication services (-0.6 per cent), and consumer discretionary (-0.1 per cent).
Iron ore miners Fortescue Metals Group and Champion Iron were the best performers on the ASX 200 yesterday, each rallying 10.2 and 8.5 per cent. This was likely due to increasing commodities prices in the spot market over the past few trading days.
Rounding out the leader board was real estate investment firm Mirvac Group, increasing by 5.4 per cent.
Trading against the run of the day was car part distributor Bapcor, dropping 9.5 per cent. Yesterday the company's board announced the retirement of its current CEO and managing director Darryl Abotomey on 28 February 2022. Abotomey has been heading Bapcor since September 2011 and said this was a good time to retire as the company is in a "strong operating and financial position". If there is no new permanent CEO appointed by 28 February 2022, Bapcor's current non-executive director Mark Powell will assume the role of acting CEO.
Software solutions provider for the logistics industry Wisetech Global also underperformed, closing 5.6 per cent lower.
Gold producer Silver Lake Resources (-5.6 per cent) continued Monday's downward trend yesterday. The company advised the market on Monday that it had acquired credit facilities to Harte Gold Corp, comprising a US$41.3 million non-revolving term facility and a US$22.0 million revolving facility. Silver Lake funded this from cash reserves and was assigned BNP Paribas' rights and obligations, which had entered into the credit agreement with Harte Gold back in 2014. Silver Lake intends to maximise the full potential of Harte Gold's Sugar Zone mine in Ontario, Canada, which comprises of 81,287 hectares of land.
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The NZX 50 rose by 0.15% to 12,480.05 as Fonterra performed strongly.