After a mixed session in the US overnight, the local market is expected to open higher this morning — the ASX SPI 200 Futures are trading up 8 points (0.1%) to 8,008.
RBA assistant governor Sarah Hunter is due to discuss employment at the Barrenjoey Economic Forum in Sydney this morning.
Shares of Accent, Adairs, Brambles (ASX:BXB), EVT, IDP Education, IGO and Kogan trade ex-dividend.
US sharemarkets were mixed overnight — the Dow Jones index fell by 93 points or 0.2%, but the S&P 500 index gained 0.5% and the Nasdaq index added 141 points or 0.8%.
The Nasdaq was lifted by a rally in the world’s biggest technology companies, countering a slew of cautious comments from big bank executives that sent financial shares and the Dow Jones index tumbling.
- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) led gains in megacaps, up 4.6%, after a bullish analyst call.
- Chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) were also higher, up between 1.5% and 3.4%.
- Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) jumped 11.4% after beating estimates for quarterly results.
- The energy sector lost 1.9% as crude oil prices fell.
- Financial stocks fell 1% after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) CEO David Solomon said that trading revenue will probably slip 10% this quarter.
- Goldman shares dropped 4.4%. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) said results for investment banking will come in lower than some on Wall Street expected, sending its shares down 0.5%.
- JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) fell 5.2% after the company offered cautious commentary on net interest income in 2025 at an industry conference.
US government bond yields declined on economic worries, ahead of a key US presidential candidates' debate and before Wednesday's release of US inflation data, which could fuel speculation on the size of the Federal Reserve's first interest rate cut.
In Europe, sharemarkets fell on Tuesday — the continent-wide FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 0.6% and in London, the UK FTSE 100 index lost 0.8%.
The automobile sector fell 3.8%. BMW slumped 11.2%, notching its worst day in over four years after the company cut its 2024 profit margin due to sluggish demand in its key Chinese market and problems related to a braking system supplied by Continental. Continental shares dropped 10.5%.
Bank stocks fell 1.6%, tracking a sell-off in US lenders.
Currencies
Currencies were mixed against the US dollar in European and US trade.
- The Euro fell from US$1.1049 to US$1.1015 and was near US$1.1020 at the US close.
- The Aussie dollar dipped from US66.76 cents to US66.40 cents and was near US66.50 cents at the US close.
- The Japanese yen rose from 143.68 yen per US dollar to JPY142.21 and was near JPY142.40 at the US close.
Commodities
Global oil prices retreated on Tuesday after OPEC+ said world oil demand would rise by 2.03 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2024, down from last month's forecast for growth of 2.11 million bpd.
- The Brent crude price fell US$2.65 or 3.7% to US$69.19 a barrel, the lowest level since December 2021.
- The US Nymex crude price shed US$2.96 or 4.3% to US$65.75 a barrel, also the lowest since December 2021.
Base metal prices were mixed on Tuesday.
- Copper futures slid 1.1% on fund selling amid persistent worries about the health of the Chinese economy.
- Aluminium futures rose 0.1%
The gold futures price rose US$10.40 or 0.4% to US$2,543.10 an ounce on Tuesday as market participants positioned themselves ahead of US inflation data for further clues on the depth of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve next week.
- Spot gold was trading near US$2,516 an ounce at the US close.
Iron ore futures dipped US48 cents or 0.5% to US$91.28 a tonne on Tuesday as the weakening Chinese demand outlook for steel outweighed softer supply and expectations of further stimulus from the top consumer.
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