Stocks shifted between small gains and losses in morning trading on Wall Street Thursday. Photo / AP
Keeping you up to date with the latest market moves, in association with Investment firm Jarden
New Zealand
The NZX remained unchanged on Thursday.
Healthcare company EBOS Group continued its rise from Wednesday, up 3.9 per cent. The non-cyclical stock has been among the top performers several times this week. Other gains included electricity and gas distributer Vector (+2.7 per cent) after announcing a strategic review of its smart metering business, and developer Precinct Property (+2.3 per cent).
The largest fall in price, for the second day in a row, belonged to Air New Zealand (-8.1 per cent). The main stock and its rights for discounted shares are trading separately on the NZX following plans for a $2.2bn recapitalisation. Volatile movement in the stock has been seen in the index for the past two weeks as investors continue to react to this announcement.
Rounding out the largest decreases were payment provider Pushpay Holdings, and freight technology company, EROAD. The companies were down 5.2 and 4.1 per cent respectively.
International
US
At the time of writing, the S&P 500 was up 0.2 per cent, the Nasdaq slipped 0.2 per cent while the Dow Jones Industrial Average remained unchanged.
The indices were relatively flat in response to the Fed's release from yesterday outlining a forecast for steady interest rate hikes and an aggressive balance sheet reduction to combat inflation and soaring prices.
Six of the 11 sectors registered gains at the time of writing. The top performers were led by health and consumer staples, rising 2.0 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively. Both sectors reached new 52-week highs. Energy closed out the top moving sectors, up 0.4 per cent.
On the other hand, real estate (-0.9 per cent), communication services (-0.9 per cent) and consumer discretionary (-0.5 per cent) were the worst performing sectors overnight.
Computer hardware company HP led the market at the time of writing, elevating 15.3 per cent. Warren Buffet's multinational conglomerate company Berkshire Hathaway acquired an 11.0 per cent stake in HP overnight. The 121 million shares are worth about US$4.2 billion according to the previous trading sessions closing price. These events may have influenced the share price's rise to a new 52-week high.
Food processing company Lamb Western Holdings advanced 7.0 per cent. This followed the company's reporting of their quarterly earnings before market-open. The results indicated profit of US 73 cents per share, 29 cents higher than consensus estimates.
Further, the reported revenues were US$955 million, US$14 million lower than estimates. Target Corporation closed out the top movers overnight, with the furniture company improving 5.6 per cent.
Twitter continued its downward trend from the previous trading session, dropping 6.0 per cent. A potential factor behind this movement could be uncertainty around the significance of Elon Musk's acquisition earlier in the week. Online retailer Etsy and gaming company Penn National Gaming rounded out the bottom movers overnight, declining 4.6 per cent and 4.3 per cent, respectively.
Rest of the World
Asian markets were in the red overnight. The Shanghai Composite regressed 1.4 per cent, Nikkei fell 1.7 per cent, and the Hang Seng reduced 1.2 per cent.
European markets closed at a lower level than the previous trading session. The FTSE down 0.5 per cent, the DAX was lessened 0.5 per cent and the CAC diminished 0.6 per cent.
Commodities
Gold traded 0.9 per cent higher to US$1,939.6 per ounce.
WTI Crude Oil also experienced a decline, falling 1.1 per cent to US$95.2 per barrel.
The cryptocurrency market was mixed, with Bitcoin having decreased 0.2 per cent and Ethereum unchanged over the last 24-hour period.
The U.S. 10-year Treasury rate rose five basis points to 2.656 per cent alongside a six basis point gain in the 30-year rate, to 2.694 per cent.
Australia
The ASX 200 closed lower yesterday, falling 0.6 per cent, with eight out of 11 sectors in the red. The index has lost 0.8 per cent for the past five days but is virtually unchanged over the last year to date. Information technology dropped 3.4 per cent, followed by a 1.6 per cent decline for consumer discretionary shares.
Four of the 10 bottom performers were tech companies, led by Life360 (-6.7 per cent) and WiseTech Global (-6.5 per cent). The falls mirrored trading in US tech shares overnight, as growth shares were hit with spectre of further central bank policy tightening.
EV battery materials producer Liontown Resources rounded out the declines, it finished the day with a 6.7 per cent fall, after a volatile week.
On the flip side, Magellan Financial Group climbed 11.4 per cent, after it announced net outflows of approximately A$1.1 billion from the most recent funds under management (FUM) update for the period 11 to 31 March.
Agribusiness GrainCorp booked the next biggest gain, rising 3.5 per cent yesterday. This is likely connected to GrainCorp's recent partnership with national science agency CSIRO and the plant-based food producer, v2food, on a A$4.4 million research project in the plant-based protein market. GrainCorp neared its year to date high.
Joining the leader board was Paladin Energy, closing 3.2 per cent higher. The uranium company opened its share purchase plan (SPP) on Wednesday and plans to raise up to A$15 million (pre-costs) under the SPP.
In macroeconomic news, Australia's trade balance declined to A$7.46 billion in February, from a downwardly revised A$11.79 billion in the previous month. This was the smallest trade surplus since March last year.
All eyes remain on the conflict in Ukraine and the rippling effects throughout the global economy. The Australian Government announced further sanctions imposed against 67 Russian nationals, and Australia will apply an additional 35 per cent tariff on all imports from Russia and Belarus, which will take effect from 25 April.
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The NZ sharemarket dipped as Fletcher Building shares fell further.