Originally published by Rivkin Securities
Earnings season on the ASX continues as several companies reported market pleasing results yesterday. Flight Centre (AX:FLT) climbed over 10% yesterday, as its earnings announcement positively surprised the market, making it the best performing S&P/ASX 200 stock for yesterday. South32 (AX:S32) also performed well following its earnings release and helped to make materials the best performing sector yesterday, finishing up 1.7%. Today we get results from another raft of companies including Qantas Airways (AX:QAN) and Medibank Private (AX:MPL).
Last night was fairly uneventful for the US indices with the majors closing slightly lower. Markets are waiting for Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s speech at the Jackson Hole summit tonight for clues on the path of interest rates. Expectations for further rate hikes this year have been tempered by the stubbornly low inflation with some federal reserve members calling for a halt to the rate hiking plan. Mario Draghi is also set to speak with markets hoping he will reveal details of the ECB’s tapering plans.
Cyclone Harvey is due to become the first hurricane to make landfall in Texas since 2008 and consequently may disrupt both oil production and refining. Non-essential staff have been evacuated from many rigs in the region and a large amount of refining capacity near the coast may be shut-in due to high winds and flooding. Oil prices initially fell but rallied over the last few hours as traders realise that production disruption may be significant. The storm is certainly bullish for gasoline as refining outages would reduce gasoline supply.
Data Releases:
- US Durable Goods Orders 10:30pm AEST