The ASX200 will once again follow its American cousins into the red today, if ASX futures are anything to go by, down 0.69% or 53 points as of 8:45 am AEST.
While commodities maintained their strong momentum overnight – bar oil, which was flat after a 3% drop yesterday – sticky inflation has continued to shake up interest rate cut expectations, leaving traders reeling as they try to anticipate policy direction.
Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) beats market expectations
eToro market analyst Josh Gilbert joins us to discuss Netflix’s earnings report.
“Netflix justified its rally this year, beating expectations across all key metrics as the business continues to grow at the fastest pace since the pandemic,” Gilbert writes.
“Netflix delivered 9.33 million new subscribers, delivering its best subscriber growth since 2020 and nearly doubling analyst estimates.
“Its crackdown on password sharing is undoubtedly bearing fruit, but importantly, its strong content slate is enticing users.
“Its advertising tier has also been a resounding success, targeting the more cost-conscious consumer effectively.
“This model will continue to support growth moving forward, and it is now in a healthy financial position to add new top-quality content, such as live sports. Netflix still has a huge target market and, therefore, a good growth runway if it continues to deliver.
“The downside to the report was that its Q2 revenue forecast came in slightly weaker than expected, signalling that subscriber growth might be lower next quarter.
“Netflix also said it would stop reporting quarterly subscriber numbers from next year, a move that will likely disappoint investors who see it as a key metric each quarter.
“This may tarnish what was a stellar report overall, especially with Wall Street expectations extremely high.”
What happened overnight?
(Source:Commsec)
US markets were mixed but mostly subdued. Losses in Tech and Consumer discretionary offset gains in Communication services.
Meta enjoyed a 1.5% bump after an update to its AI-powered assistant – the social media giant partnered with Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to include its search results when the assistant answers prompts.
A broker downgrade saw shares in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) fall 3.6%, while bitcoin miners enjoyed a windfall ahead of the expected halving event, a scheduled event within blockchain ecosystems that halves the reward generated for mining a new bitcoin.
It's earnings season again, and according to Commsec about 12% of S&P500 companies have made their reports. FactSet estimates 73% have beaten the consensus forecast thus far.
The Dow rose 0.1% or 22 points, but the S&P500 dipped 0.2% despite a 0.7% rally in early trading and the Nasdaq slipped a further 0.5% or 82 points after shedding 1.1% yesterday.
Europe fared better.
Swiss engineering firm ABB (ST:ABB) gained 5.5% on beating forecasts with a US$1.41 billion profit, and German airline Lufthansa gained 5.6% as oil prices faltered and the company’s results were reported above forecasts.
Policymakers at the ECB signalled a rate cut may be needed in June to avoid falling behind the inflation curve, putting wind into the sails of European indices.
The French market rose 0.6%, the German 0.4%, the UK FTSE100 also 0.4% and the Euro-wide FTSE300 0.2%.
Currencies and commodities
The US dollar reversed course overnight, gaining strength against our basket of currencies.
The Euro fell from US$1.0690 to near US$1.0646, the Aussie from 64.55 US cents to near 64.25 US cents and the Japanese Yen fell from 154.10 yen per US dollar to near JPY154.60 at the US close.
Oil was flat for the most part – Brent fell 18 US cents to US$87.11 a barrel, while US Nymex rose 4 US cents to US$82.73 a barrel.
Traders seem to be becoming more confident the conflict the Middle East will not strongly disrupt oil supply, but at the same time the US has said it will reinstate oil sanctions on Venezuela.
Base metals gained once again. Copper futures rose 2%, aluminium 0.8% and iron ore US65c or 0.6% to US$107.95 a tonne.
Gold also continued to rise, adding US$10.40 or 0.4% to US$2,398.80 an ounce. Spot gold was trading near US$2,378 an ounce at the US close.
On the small cap front
The Small Ordinaries index gained 0.46% or 13.8 points yesterday, closely mirroring the ASX’s 0.48% gain.
You can read about the following and more throughout the day on our website.