On Wall Street, the Nasdaq Composite – falling 1.09% to 17,496.82 points – was led down by artificial intelligence darling Nvidia which declined 6.68% to US$118.11, losing US$500 billion to US$2.96 trillion in market value since briefly becoming the world’s most valuable company last week.
It was chipmaker Nvidia’s third successive down day, during which the stock has fallen 13%. Nvidia has made up about one-third of the S&P 500 index’s 14% increase this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average continued its ascent to the 40,000 market, gaining 0.67% to 39,411.21 points, and the S&P 500 was down 0.31% to 5447.87.
At home, market leader Fisher and Paykel Healthcare dragged the NZX index higher after increasing 50c or 1.68% to $30.23. The stock fell the day before when American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly announced it was seeking approval of its weight loss drug Zepbound for the treatment of sleep apnea.
Eli Lilly expects US regulators to make a decision by the end of the year and if cleared, plans to launch the drug early next year and apply for insurance coverage.
Port of Tauranga rose 21c or 4.49% to $4.89 on a broker upgrade. The biggest export port in the country, Tauranga is no doubt benefitting from improved trade balance figures.
The May exports exceeded $7b for the first time, increasing $202m from a year ago to $7.2b. Imports increased $39m to $7b and the monthly trade balance showed a surplus of $204m.
The United States has gone ahead of Australia as New Zealand’s second-largest export market with a value of $8.8b – China is still first at $17.9b. Beef exports to the US increased 31% to $1.7b on the back of a 45% fall to China. Wine exports to the US reached $789m, more than sheep meat and natural milk products.
Auckland International Airport gained 13c or 1.7% to $7.76; Freightways collected 20c or 2.63% to $7.80; Spark added 7c or 1.76% to $4.05; Summerset increased 18c or 1.89% to $9.72; and Chorus was up 14c or 1.84% to $7.74.
Meridian Energy gained 12c or 1.95% to $6.27 after holding an investor day and forecasting that wind and solar costs will fall while long-term electricity prices will increase.
Ventia Services increased 12c or 2.93% to $4.21; Winton Land rose 8c or 4.19% to $1.99; NZME was up 2c or 2.2% to 93c; PGG Wrightson improved 4c or 2.61% to $1.57; Radius Residential Care added a further 2c or 10.53% to 21c; Bremworth gained 1.5c or 4.17% to 37.5c; and The Warehouse rebounded 2c or 2.04% to $1.
SkyCity Entertainment, up 2c to $1.46, is selling its 10% holding in European-based Gaming Innovation Group for $55m, using the money to reduce debt. SkyCity paid $40m for the shareholding in April 2022 and will continue to have a relationship through SkyCity Online Casino operated from Malta.
Tower, up 1c to 88c, has reached an initial five-year agreement with Kiwibank to provide general insurance products for its retail banking customers.
Fletcher Building, down 2c to $2.88, has lost another director – Martin Brydon is stepping down at the end of the week instead of at the October annual meeting.
Infratil, unchanged at $11, will have its weighting on the NZX 50 increased to 9% at Thursday’s end of trading following the issue of new shares in its $1.15b capital raising.
Mainfreight was down 93c to $67.32; Scales Corp declined 15c or 4.16% to $3.46; Briscoe Group shed 7c or 1.75% to $3.93; Colonial Motor fell 45c or 6.2% to $6.80; Green Cross Health decreased 2c or 2.6% to 75c; and Accordant Group was down 2c or 4.44% to 43c.
Other decliners were Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund down 10c or 2.47% to $3.95; CDL Investments easing 1.5c or 2.04% to 72c; and Scott Technology decreasing 4c or 1.97% to $1.99.
