“Probably the overarching macro news from this morning our time was the US market closed not down a lot, but closed on its lows, and oil was up quite sharply on reports that Israel is about to launch something on Iran,” Goodson said.
“The direct relevance to the New Zealand markets is limited, it’s more the overarching backdrop for equity markets.”
Goodson light-heartedly said there were as many views on oil prices as there are investors, but three areas were driving the concern.
What occurs in Iran is one worry, and a second is the magnitude of tough sanctions on Russian oil.
“The third thing is US shale production, which has been a key growth in oil production in the last few years but it seems to be peaking and perhaps even just starting to roll over a little bit.”
As for local markets, Goodson said movements on the board were relatively random.
Shares in Fletcher Building fell 0.91% to $3.28, down 3c, following the news yesterday it had received inquiries from parties interested in buying its businesses.
Elsewhere, Spark shares were flat after rumours spread that international private equity firm KKR had shown interest in buying the business.
However, there was a lot of movement on Spark shares, with 6,841,492 trading hands to the value of $16,013,651.23.
“To be honest, we struggle with it a little bit given that Spark is already relatively geared and has sold off a number of assets.
“What’s left for private equity isn’t quite so clear, although it still does generate reasonable cashflow as a business. It’s just paying out too much of it as a dividend at the moment, which it’ll have to cut,” Goodson said.
Shares in Ryman Healthcare were down, reverting to the value they held just a few days ago.
Shares in Ryman fell 2.23% to $2.19, down 5c, with 1,330,773 shares changing hands to the value of $2,917,475.47.
Most Asian markets fell today, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Wellington, Taipei and Jakarta in the red after a broadly healthy run-up this week. There were gains in Sydney, Singapore and Seoul.
The weak performance followed losses on Wall Street, where trade worries overshadowed another below-forecast inflation reading that provided fresh speculation the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.
Oil prices slipped but held most of Wednesday’s surge of between 4-5% that came after US President Donald Trump said US personnel were being moved from the potentially “dangerous” Middle East as Iran nuclear talks stutter.
The move came as Tehran threatened to target US military bases in the region if a regional conflict broke out.
– Additional reporting AFP
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
