Originally published by CMC Markets
The stock market looks set for a positive open this morning with investor confidence buoyed by the prospect of ongoing international stimulus.
ECB President Mario Draghi buoyed investor confidence combining last night’s announcement of reduced bond purchases with a decision to leave the QE program open ended and assurances that the Bank’s interest rate would be left near zero for as long as necessary. Together with the Bank of Japan’s easy policy, this ensures that world equity markets will benefit from liquidity support for some time to come.
Added to this mix is growing market confidence that the US Government will add extra fiscal stimulus to this mix in the form of tax cuts.
Last night’s relatively moderate taper announcement by the ECB draws a sharper distinction with the US Fed which is beginning to run down the size of its balance sheet and will be contemplating recent solid economic data including new home sales and durable goods orders. This difference led to a sharp jump in the US dollar; a weaker gold price and another rise in US bond yields.
This week’s CPI data indicates that the RBA will be another central banks that’s likely to be well behind the Fed in beginning to tighten monetary policy and a drop in the AUD/USD exchange rate this week has been the result
Macquarie (AX:MQG) will help the S&P/ASX 200 with a profit result that beat consensus expectations; announcement of a share buyback and a lift in guidance indicating F18 net operating profit will be slightly higher than last year. This was a solid result that combined revenue growth with lower expenses and should please the market.