While overseas markets were mixed overnight, the ASX is expected to open higher this morning. The ASX 200 futures are up 31 points, or 0.4%.
The ASX 200’s expected higher open this morning follows a 0.9% fall on the local market on Tuesday and a slump in Asian markets.
The Dow Jones and S&P 500 closed lower overnight but the tech-heavy Nasdaq index finished higher on strength in tech majors, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Overnight, Bitcoin gained as much as 4.5% to about US$43,945, adding to a surge over Sunday and Monday that pushed it above $US40,000 for the first time in almost two years. Crypto-related stocks — Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), MicroStrategy and Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) — each rose for a third day with all up by more than 300% this year.
What happened overnight?
Here’s what we saw (source Commsec):
US markets
US sharemarkets were mixed on Tuesday as investors assessed a fresh batch of US economic data, including a jobs report, to gauge the probability of rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve early next year, while megacap stocks rebounded from the previous day's losses.
- The Dow Jones index fell by 80 points or 0.2%.
- The S&P 500 index dipped 0.1%.
- The Nasdaq index added 44 points or 0.3%.
Nvidia and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) rose by up to 2.3% as US Treasury yields fell, while Tesla lifted 1.3% after four straight days of losses.
Apple gained 2.1% after SensorTower data showed App store revenue jumped 11% quarter-to-date for the fiscal first quarter of 2024.
Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) slid 3.5% after the household products company said it would record restructuring and impairment charges totalling US$2 billion to US$2.5 billion after taxes.
KeyCorp (NYSE:NYSE:KEY) shed 3.7% after the lender said it sees fourth-quarter non-interest income down 5%-8%, compared with the third quarter.
US government bond yields tumbled after a report showed that US job openings fell sharply in October.
- The US 10-year Treasury yield fell by 11 points to 4.18%.
- The US 2-year Treasury yield dropped 7 points to 4.59%.
European markets
European sharemarkets were choppy on Tuesday.
- The continent-wide FTSEurofirst 300 index rose by 0.3%.
- The UK FTSE 100 index slipped 0.3%, with Barclays (LON:BARC) down 2.5% after shareholder Qatar Holdings cut its stake.
- German shares hit a fresh record high, up 0.8%, propelled by gains in Allianz (ETR:ALVG) and Daimler (ETR:DAI) Truck, which rose between 1.6% and 3.4%.
Rate-sensitive real estate stocks led sectoral gains, up 1.7%, after European Central Bank board member Isabel Schnabel said further interest hikes were "rather unlikely."
China-exposed HSBC and Prudential (LON:PRU) fell by up to 1.3% following Moody's outlook cut on China's credit ratings.
HCOB's euro zone services purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose from 47.8 to 48.7 in November (survey: 48.2).
Commodities
Global oil prices fell to a near five-month low on Tuesday, as a stronger US dollar and demand concerns offset supply worries after Russia said OPEC+ was ready to deepen output cuts in the first quarter of next year. Saudi Arabia lowered its official crude selling prices to Asia for next month, a sign of weakness in markets.
- The Brent crude price fell by US83 cents or 1.1% to US$77.20 a barrel.
- The US Nymex crude price shed US72 cents or 1% to $72.32 a barrel.
Base metal prices fell on concerns about China's economic outlook.
- Copper futures shed 1.3%.
- Aluminium futures slid 1.1%.
The gold futures price fell by US$5.90 or 0.3% to US$2,036.30 an ounce. Spot gold was trading near US$2,019 an ounce at the US close.
Iron ore futures added US31 cents or 0.2% to US$130.77 a tonne. Brazilian miner Vale said iron ore production this year was set to reach about 315 million tonnes, in line with its forecasts and up 2.3% from 2022
Currencies
Currencies were weaker against the US dollar in European and US trade.
- The Euro fell from US$1.0847 to US$1.0777 and was near US$1.0795 at the US close.
- The Aussie dollar dipped from US65.84 cents to US65.44 cents and was near US65.50 cents at the US close.
- The Japanese yen eased from 146.58 yen per US dollar to JPY147.36 and was near JPY147.20 at the US close.
Looking ahead
Economic growth or GDP data is released today with the quarterly national accounts.
On the small cap front
The S&P ASX Small Ordinaries closed 1.55% lower yesterday, while the ASX 200 lost 0.89%.
You can read more about the following throughout the day.
- Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU, OTC:IUGNF) says a Europe patent is to be granted for its PD1-Vaxx cancer vaccine, having received a notification of Intention to Grant from the European Patent Office.
- Catalyst Metals Ltd (ASX:CYL) has provided an updated mineral resource & ore reserve statement for its Plutonic Gold Mine and an updated mineral resource for the Trident deposit.
- Magmatic Resources Ltd (ASX:MAG) reports that diamond drilling has rapidly expanded the mineralised footprint at its Myall Project with high-grade copper intersected west of the Corvette deposit.
- St George Mining Ltd (ASX:SGQ) announces the discovery of a significant clay-hosted rare-earth elements (REE) system at the Destiny Project in WA’s Goldfields region.
- Alto Metals Ltd (ASX:AME) has defined a major new six-kilometre-long gold and pathfinder anomaly from surface soil samples at Sandstone North.