Sign up to create alerts for Instruments,
Economic Events and content by followed authors
Free Sign Up Already have an account? Sign In
Quotes
All Instrument Types
- All Instrument Types
- Indices
- Equities
- ETFs
- Funds
- Commodities
- Currencies
- Crypto
- Bonds
- Certificates
Please try another search
New Year’s SALE: Up to 40% OFF InvestingPro+ CLAIM OFFER
Week in review: good rate news in the US, but not for us, as markets rally
© Reuters. Week in review: good rate news in the US, but not for us, as markets rally
The markets did a U-turn this week, starting off flat but pivoting to look quite healthy by week’s end, in an otherwise buoyant month for Australian stocks.
Wall Street took a break for Thanksgiving, with markets closing on a high note before the Thursday holiday.
And US investors had good reason to give thanks, as minutes from the Federal Reserve’s November meeting seemed to indicate that the interest rate pain might be nearing an end.
Light at the end of the rate tunnel for US
“A substantial majority of participants judged that a slowing in the pace of increase would likely soon be appropriate,” said the minutes.
This prompted activity on the US markets, with the S&P reaching a two-month high and passing the 4,000-point threshold and the Nasdaq moving up 0.99%, and all sectors apart from the thorny energy sector, finishing in the green.
Back home, the Health Care sector was one of the winners, rising 2.21% over the week, along with Utilities, up more than 3% and Industrials, which gained more than 2% over the same period.
Information Technology conformed with some prevailing global trends, still in the red, followed by Communication Services and Consumer Discretionary, both sectors trending just over the line into the green.
The best performers in the S&P/ASX top 100 stocks included Virgin Money (LON:VM), which rose by more than 16%, followed by Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) (+9%) and Evolution Mining (+7%).
The worst performing stocks included Star Entertainment Group (-7%), Wisetech Global (-6%) and Block (-5%).
The Australian dollar rounded out the week at 67.62 US cents.
Will the good mood last?
“It is now seven weeks since the low on 3 October with the previous bull run on the Australian market lasting eight weeks between June and August,” noted Wealth Within chief analyst Dale Gillham.
“While we would all like the market to just keep rising, we know it doesn’t work like that and we need to be prepared for a turning point in the current uptrend. It’s not a matter of if it will fall, just when and it is likely to be very soon.”
On the home front, our own central bank governor was sounding more hawkish than his US counterparts during the week, warning Australians to brace for even higher inflation and slower growth.
"If we all buy into the idea that wages have to go up to compensate people for inflation it will be painful, so best avoid that," he said in Melbourne on Tuesday night.
The remarks dragged the characteristically mild-mannered economist into a political set-to between the government and the opposition, as the two sides came down along predictable lines on wages and the economy.
One thing is clear – if investors thought our monetary policy would neatly follow that of the US, they might be in for an unpleasant surprise.
The week that was
Some good reads for those following the fortunes of small caps:
Azure Mineral fields highest grade nickel intersection from Andover’s Ridgeline deposit
Azure Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZS, OTC:AZRMF) (Azure Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZS, OTC:AZRMF)) scored its highest-grade intersection to date, hitting a very broad zone of high-grade nickel sulphide during resource definition drilling at the Ridgeline deposit, part of its Andover Project in the West Pilbara region of WA.
Read more
Kingston Resources to share in government funding for high-tech metals projects
Kingston Resources Ltd (ASX:KSN) (Kingston Resources Ltd (ASX:KSN)) has unlocked up to half a million dollars in NSW government funding to support feasibility-level work at its Mineral Hill mine. The money comes from the state government’s Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Activation Fund, which includes a stream focused on project activation studies.
Read more
Kingston Resource delivers 114% increase in total tonnage for SOZ resource at Mineral Hill
In other positive news for Kingston Resources, the company delivered a 114% increase in total tonnage to 3.8 million tonnes at 1.29 g/t gold, 19.2 g/t silver, 0.9% copper, 1.6% lead and 1.4% zinc from its first update of the mineral resource for the Southern Ore Zone (SOZ) at the Mineral Hill Mine in western New South Wales.
Read more
Stellar Resources lifts contained tin resource by 29% at Severn within Heemskirk Project in Tasmania
Stellar Resources Ltd (ASX:SRZ) (Stellar Resources Ltd (ASX:SRZ)) welcomed the results of an updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) for its flagship Heemskirk Tin Project in western Tasmania, which points to a 16% overall increase in contained tin, thanks to an update for the Severn deposit, which now hosts 4.9 million tonnes at 1.0% tin for 46,764 tonnes of contained tin, a 29% increase.
Read more
Los Cerros lured by PNG's copper, nickel and gold opportunities
Los Cerros Ltd (ASX:LCL) (Los Cerros Ltd (ASX:LCL)) made the push into Papua New Guinea with the “transformational addition” of private company Footprint Resources, which boasts an exploration portfolio consisting of multiple copper, nickel and gold targets.
Watch
Related Articles
Add Chart to Comment
Confirm Block
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
Report this comment
I feel that this comment is:
Comment flagged
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.