Australian Market Opens Higher After Wall Street's Strong Performance
Investing.com - The Australian stock market opened 0.4% higher on Tuesday morning, echoing a robust session witnessed on Wall Street. The positive shift comes as investors anticipate this week's upcoming release of July's consumer price index report.
ASX 200 Futures were also up 0.1%
The surge in share prices from blue-chip giants like Berkshire Hathaway B (NYSE:BRKb) was instrumental in driving the US market to greater heights on Monday and aiding Wall Street to recoup from recent losses.
Earning businesses such as Geico and BNSF Railway under its umbrella, the Nebraska-based company concluded Monday's trading at an all-time high stock price following their bounce back to profitability during Q2. A noteworthy rise of 3.6% pushed Berkshire’s class B shares up to $362.58 – marking a record peak since March 2022 when interest rate hikes were initiated by the Federal Reserve.
This uptrend played a significant role in boosting S&P 500 by achieving a daily gain of 0.9%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average also saw an addition of 408 points or equivalent upliftment by 1.2%.
Despite facing initial setbacks due to Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares sliding down 1%, spurred by CFO Zachary Kirkhorn leaving his position; The NASDAQ Composite managed an overall advance of 0.6%.
In commodity circles, Brent crude oil experienced slight turbulence losing about half a point at -0.7%. Gold similarly mirrored this trend dipping slightly by -0.3% closing off at US$1,93685 per ounce.
Among bond markets, Australian and U.S. 10-year rates were at 4.108% and 4.082% respectively, while the Aussie dollar was at 0.6568.
Asian Stock Markets Stumble Over Property Developers' Debts and Regulatory Concerns
Chinese stocks took a hit as rumors swirled around the possible governmental takeover of Country Garden Holdings Company Ltd (HK:2007), one of China's largest property developers grappling with debt. This news sparked a wave of uncertainty that led to declines in shares for its competitors; China Vanke Co Ltd (SZ:000002) and China Merchants Shekou Industrial Zone Holdings (SZ:001979) saw their shares drop by 3.4% and 3.5%, respectively.
The healthcare sector also felt the strain, with Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co Ltd (SZ:300760) witnessing a substantial dip of 6.0%. Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co Ltd (SS:600276) was not far behind with a decline of approximately 4.7%. The eyes of investors were trained on several key factors during this period - inflation data from July, credit data, and notable earnings reports from leading Chinese tech firms.
Consequently, Shanghai Composite Index ended up recording a fall of about 0.6%, closing at an index value of 3268.83 points. Both Shenzhen Composite Index and ChiNext Price Index followed suit experiencing drops by roughly around similar margins-0.7% and 1% respectively.
In Hong Kong’s market scene, after much turbulence throughout the trading day which resulted in fluctuating gains and losses for major players in the market space – things eventually settled into an uneventful close at flat rates with Hang Seng Index resting at 19537.92 points.
Pharmaceutical companies experienced significant downturns due to increasing regulatory apprehensions, following announcements made by top watchdogs launching crackdowns against corruption within this industry sector across various cities over the last week, according to state media outlets’ reports.
Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd (HK:3692) sank sharply by 10%, while Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd (HK:1177) dropped 5.6%. Adding fuel to the fire were concerns about stability that arose afresh among developers, causing further loss amplification.