It looks like it’s going to be a promising start to the year for the ASX, with the ASX200 sitting up 0.25% as of 1:00 pm AEST time today, gaining 19 points to 7,609.8.
The bourse set a new 100-day high with these latest gains, although it remains to be seen which direction the market will settle in by the end of trading today.
The sector movements are fairly muted at present, with 9 of 11 making small gains between 0.06% and 0.38%.
Energy and Real Estate are serving as bookends for the first trading day of the year, with Energy gaining a solid 1.38% to counter Real Estate’s 0.40% loss.
Coal and gas are doing the heavy lifting for the sector as oil prices remain subdued. Whitehaven and Yancoal were up 1.5% and 1.4% respectively while gas giants Santos, Woodside and Ampol gained between 0.3% and 0.9%.
For the greater ASX200, Core Lithium, up 5.00%, and Boss Energy, up 4.47%, made the biggest gains.
Commodities overall had a very slow start to the year, with only zinc (+0.61%) making any real impact while silver dipped 1.89%, platinum slipped 1.82% and palladium 2.94%.
US stocks in sight of records
Capital.com senior financial market analyst Kyle Rodda shares his insights for the new year, taking a look at Wall Street’s strong starting position for 2024 and predicting a slow start to trading for the ASX this year.
“Wall Street ended 2023 almost 25% higher and a fraction shy of all-time highs. With the new year underway, the markets are buoyed by expectations for global rate cuts, with futures pointing to about six in the United States this year,” Rodda wrote.
“As always, there are many unanswered questions about the path forward for growth and inflation, especially the recession prospects and subsequent policy responses. There is also the unanswered China question, simmering global geopolitical tensions and a likely fractious US political environment heading into a Presidential election.
“These are the foundation stones of the proverbial wall of worry investors must climb. Currently, sentiment is bullish and confidence is high that this wall can be conquered.
“After a lackadaisical week between Christmas and the New Year, the markets will return to some normalcy. The start of the week will be remarkably thin because of public holidays.
“By mid-week, the data flow will pick up, with ample Tier-1 data out of the US, including the all-important Non-Farm Payroll numbers.
“Asian markets have more underwhelming Chinese PMI surveys to digest. The numbers, released on Saturday, revealed an unexpected drop in manufacturing activity and signalled ongoing weak domestic and global demand. Technicals and low multiples suggest Chinese assets are significantly undervalued and poised for a rebound in 2024.
“However, sentiment is still bearish and fears about deflation, country risk and other structural problems raise the risk that China’s malaise is a long-term issue.”
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