AT&T was the best performing single stock at the time of writing, up 8.1 per cent. The telecommunications conglomerate announced the completion of a merger between its subsidiary WarnerMedia and Discovery, with the combined firm (Warner Bros. Discovery) now trading on the Nasdaq under the WBD ticker. Discovery also increased 5.8 per cent on the news. Delta Air Lines (+4.0 per cent) rounded out the podium of outperformers.
Occidental Petroleum (-6.2 per cent) and Diamondback Energy (-5.5 per cent) were among the S&P 500's largest laggards. The energy companies may have dropped due to concerns that China's Covid-19 lockdowns would reduce oil demand globally. Computing component company NVIDIA fell 5.5 per cent amid concerns of weakening demand for semiconductors.
Rest of the world
The Nikkei decreased 0.6 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng saw larger falls of 2.6 and 3.0 per cent respectively.
Chinese stocks declined on news of rising producer inflation. China's March inflation data has revealed a year-on-year increase in the producer price index of 8.3 per cent, while the consumer price index rose 1.5 per cent. The considerable disparity between the two measures may point to reduced margins for Chinese firms.
Commodities
Gold rose 0.3 per cent at the time of writing. Oil prices dropped following the demand concerns of Chinese lockdowns, with WTI Crude falling 4.3 per cent.
The 10-year government bond yield increased 0.1 per cent to 2.78 per cent, which is the highest level since January 2019, when the 10-year note yielded 2.799 per cent.
Cryptocurrencies were in the red at the time of writing, with Bitcoin down 6.4 per cent and Ethereum trading 8.0 per cent lower.
New Zealand
The NZX 50 started the week in the red with a 1.1 per cent fall yesterday.
The top performer was Air New Zealand, rising 5.6 per cent. Fishing company Sanford increased 2.4 per cent and electricity generation and retail company Contact Energy was up 1.9 per cent.
Conversely, The a2 Milk Company was the biggest underperformer, down 4.6 per cent, taking the company to a 52-week decline of almost 40 per cent. Healthcare companies EBOS Group and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare rounded out the underperformers with decreases of 4.5 and 3.3 per cent, respectively.
Auckland Airport traded flat after announcing the appointment of a new independent director. Mark Cairns will be joining in June. He was previously chief executive of Port of Tauranga for 16 years.
Stats NZ released New Zealanders' card spending information for March, showing an increase of 1.6 per cent compared with February 2022. Driving this rise was seasonally adjusted card spending on non-retail industries, up 14.5 per cent. "The increase coincided with announcements about the upcoming easing of restrictions on international travel," business performance statistics manager Ricky Ho said.
Looking forward, the market is awaiting the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's (RBNZ) Official Cash Rate decision tomorrow, at its Monetary Policy Review. While a rise from the current 1.0 per cent rate is expected and 25 basis point rise is being priced in by markets, some economists are saying current inflation concerns could see the RBNZ increase the OCR by 50 basis points.
Australia
The ASX 200 remained flat yesterday. IT and consumer discretionary were down -0.9 per cent and -0.7 per cent respectively. These were balanced out with gains in financials (+0.8 per cent), consumer staples (+0.6 per cent) and telecommunications (+0.4 per cent).
Agribusiness Graincorp closed with the largest gains, up 6.7 per cent. This marks three days in the green, bringing it to a total increase of 16.8 per cent from last Thursday.
Perseus Mining Ltd was the next gainer, with a 4.8 per rise. This continues on from its recent strong performance, up 57.1 per cent from the same time last year.
The third-largest increase came from gold mining company Northern Star Resources, up 3.9 per cent.
The a2 Milk Company closed with a 5.4 per cent drop, the biggest decrease of the day. This brings a2 Milk to NZ$5.24, which is the lowest price since 2017 (the company is listed on both the ASX and NZX).
Medical device company PolyNovo also ended in the red after falling 5.0 per cent.
Paladin Energy rounds out the bottom three performers with a 3.9 per cent decrease. This is only a small drop after its 13.9 per cent jump last week.
In other news, Australia's Federal Election date has been called for May 21.
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