The ASX is set for a Thursday in the green after Wall Street tracked substantial gains overnight.
Benchmark futures indicate the ASX 200 will jump 0.69% or 51 points at the open, priming it for a day of gains.
What’s new on Wall Street?
Fed Reserve chair Jerome Powell triggered a green run in New York when he said interest rate hikes could temper as soon as December.
Powell remarked: “It makes sense to moderate the pace of our rate increases as we approach the level of restraint that will be sufficient to bring inflation down,” sending markets as much as 130 points or 3.3% higher.
By the bell, all four major indices and all 11 sectors had notched gains. The Nasdaq led with a 4.41% win, followed closely by the S&P (up 3.09%), the Russell 2000 (up 2.69%) and the Dow (up 2.18%).
Investors flocked to technology stocks, sparking a more than 5% gain. The communication and consumer discretionary sectors followed hot on their heels with increases above 3%.
The rally even flowed through to energy stocks, which rose 0.55% in a slight correction following early-week concerns over China’s COVID situation and prolonged negotiations on Russian oil price caps.
All in all, three-quarters of US stocks made gains but 42% are still trading below their 200-day moving average. Still, this is better than the 46% of stocks below the line on Wednesday.
Commodities and currency
Oil gained back some ground overnight, with both Brent Crude and West Texas Intermediate jumping above 1%.
Oanda senior market analyst Ed Moya said energy traders were looking at the next week and saw two potential bullish catalysts for oil prices.
“[One is] an OPEC+ decision that could easily justify lower output targets given China’s demand outlook and a Russian crude price cap that needs to be put in place; otherwise, a ban on Russian imports takes effect on December 5,” he explained.
There was also good news for gold traders: the precious metal rallied 0.47% to fetch US$1,748 an ounce, cementing November as its best month on record since May 2021.
Iron ore futures were also up, jumping 1% to US$101.15 a tonne.
Even the Aussie dollar mustered strength overnight, rising 1.53% against US paper. Just before the market opened, it was buying 68 US cents and 56 British pence.
On the ASX
The battle for Warrego Energy continues with a new suitor in the mix — Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has submitted a 23-cents-per-share takeover bid for the Perth-based energy company.
Warrego is already fielding offers from fellow ASX listers Strike Energy and Beach Energy (ASX:BPT), which valued the company at 18.6 cents and 20 cents per share, respectively.
Warrego said it would consider Hancock’s offer but it had already drawn up a scheme of arrangement with Beach that includes a ‘no talk’ provision.
“Under the Beach SID, Beach has a five-business day matching right before the Warrego board can change its recommendation to recommend a competing proposal,” the company stated today.
“At this time, the Warrego directors maintain their existing recommendation in favour of the Beach scheme proposal.”
In other news, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises is looking for dough to buy out its German business partner.
The fast food magnate is calling for a $165 million delivery under the equity raise, pricing shares at slightly more than $65 a pop.
Overnight, DMP announced it had cut the ribbon on its Domino’s Malaysia and Singapore acquisitions, with Domino’s Cambodia set to enter the fold early next year.
Ringo Joannes, who previously served as CEO of the company's Belgium/Luxembourg business, will lead the new markets in Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia.