US tech stock rally brings Christmas Eve cheer to ASX
By Hannah Kennelly
Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day.
The numbers
The Australian sharemarket closed high on Christmas Eve, making the most of the rally from some of the world’s largest technology companies that spurred a rebound on Wall Street.
The S&P/ASX200 added 19.3 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 8,220.9 points as of 2.11pm AEDT, with eight of the 11 industry sectors trading in the green. The gains come after the market rose 1.7 per cent on Monday, posting its best session in six months.
Wall Street recovered from an early wobble as the heavyweight technology stocks spurred a rebound.Credit: Bloomberg
The Australian dollar retreated and traded at 62.31 US cents at 10.55am AEDT. The Australian sharemarket closed early on Christmas Eve and will be closed on Christmas Day.
The lifters
Shopping centre owners were trending up in anticipation of strong holiday spending, with Scentre, Stockland and Vicinity up 1.4 per cent, 0.6 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, property developer Lendlease gained 1.4 per cent.
Communications giant Telstra was up 0.5 per cent following the $3.4 billion Foxtel sale to billionaire-backed entity DAZN. News Corporation and Telstra sold their stakes in Foxtel to the British sports streaming business.
Biotech giant CSL (up 0.9 per cent) and RMD (up 1.3 per cent) pushed the healthcare sector higher. However, software medical imaging company Pro Medicus was down 2 per cent, following news the company has signed a $30 million seven-year contract with Duly Health and Care (DHC).
The big four banks recovered from a lacklustre morning, with CBA – the biggest stock on the ASX – gaining 0.3 per cent, while Westpac, ANZ and NAB gained 0.4 per cent, 0.5 per cent and 0.7 per cent.
IT stocks rose on the back of a 0.7 per cent rise in the nation’s biggest tech company, WiseTech Global. Software maker Technology One rose 1.1 per cent. Energy heavyweights had a solid day, with Woodside and Santos up 0.9 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively.
The laggards
It was a bad day for mining heavyweights, with BHP (down 0.4 per cent), Rio Tinto (down 0.8 per cent) and Fortescue unchanged. The industrial sector was mixed, with TCL losing 0.6 per cent and Computershare dropping 0.3 per cent.
The lowdown
Senior investment advisor Adam Dawes said banking and healthcare were some of the best-forming sectors on Tuesday, citing gains by CSL (up 0.9 per cent).
“It looks like the market had a good bounce from a good lead from Wall Street,” Dawes said.
On Wall Street overnight, US stocks recovered from a wobble that was fuelled by weaker-than-expected data on US consumer confidence. While most companies in the S&P 500 retreated, Tesla and Nvidia drove a gauge of the “Magnificent Seven” megacaps up over 1 per cent.
However, it was a thin trading session at the start of a holiday-shortened week, with volume roughly 20 per cent below the average of the past month.
To Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson, negative breadth – when falling shares outnumber those that are rising – may not matter as much for high-quality stock indexes with robust price momentum.
Earlier, stocks lost steam momentarily after data showed consumer confidence unexpectedly sank for the first time in three months on concerns about the outlook for the US economy.
The S&P 500 added 0.4 per cent. The Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.7 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average wavered.
Qualcomm climbed after prevailing at trial against Arm Holdings’ claim that it breached a licence for chip technology. Rumble soared on news that crypto stablecoin firm Tether will buy a stake in the video-sharing platform.
Tweet of the day
Quote of the day
“Soon to be Australia’s biggest sports broadcasting company, DAZN wants to become the “Netflix of sports”. There’s just one problem: Netflix wants that title, too.”
Read more of Calum Jaspan’s analysis of Foxtel’s sale here.
You may have missed
Japanese auto giants Honda and Nissan have announced plans to work toward a merger that would form the world’s third-largest car maker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels.
The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors had also agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses.
Read more here.
with Bloomberg
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