ASX finishes flat after banks, miners retreat

Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day.

The numbers

The Australian sharemarket closed flat on Monday, after losses driven by the energy giants and ANZ were curtailed by growth in the consumer discretionary and healthcare sectors.

The S&P/ASX 200 rose 2.1 points, up less than 0.1 per cent, to 8423 points at the close, with eight of the 11 industry sectors trading positively.

The Australian dollar saw marginal losses and was valued at 63.82 US cents as of 4.24pm (AEDT) on Monday.

Wall Street closed a third-straight winning week with more gains.Credit: AP

The lifters

Consumer discretionary services were the best performing sector, buoyed by gains from Aristocrat Leisure (up 2 per cent), Kmart and Bunnings owner Wesfarmers (up 0.7 per cent). Breville (up 2.9 per cent) and JB Hi-Fi (up 0.4 per cent).

Commercial and industry property giant Goodman Group (up 3.4 per cent) progressed, while Origin Energy (up 0.3 per cent) and Meridian Energy (0.6 per cent) also finished in the green.

Health giant ResMed (up 2.3 per cent) enjoyed a positive trading day, and was followed by CSL (up 0.2 per cent), Pro Medicus (up 0.1 per cent) and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (up 1.7 per cent).

Financial services firm GQG Partners rose 6.3 per cent after announcing the termination of an on-market buyback scheme of CHESS depositary interests.

The laggards

ANZ – which on Monday announced the coming departure of chief executive Shayne Elliott after nine years in the role – saw its shares slide by 3.6 per cent. Elliott will leave the role in July, with Nuno Matos – most recently in charge of wealth and personal banking at HSBC – to fill the vacancy. NAB (down 0.2 per cent) also retreated, while Commonwealth Bank (up 1.5 per cent), Westpac (up 0.3 per cent) and Macquarie (up 0.2 per cent) finished higher.

Fortescue shares (down 1.2 per cent) fell, while BHP (down 0.3 per cent) and Rio Tinto (down 0.2 per cent) also lost ground. Iron ore prices fell by more than 1 per cent at the weekend.

Energy shares fell sharply after oil prices slid by more than 1 per cent. Woodside (down 1.1 per cent) and Santos (down 0.8 per cent) led losses and were followed by Yancoal Australia (down 0.8 per cent) and Ampol (down 2 per cent).

Platinum Asset Management shares tumbled by 14.4 per cent after investment management firm Regal Partners abandoned a takeover bid, having undertaken a period of due diligence. Shares in IT firm Life360 fell by 8.3 per cent amid questions about its inclusion in the Russell indexes.

The lowdown

eToro market analyst Farhan Badami said the sharemarket’s performance on Monday was “not much of a surprise”, but added that ANZ’s stock would be “one to watch” over the next week as investors react to the exit of long-term chief executive Shayne Elliott.

The sharemarket’s performance for the rest of the week is expected to be influenced by the Reserve Bank’s interest rates decision, which will be delivered on Tuesday afternoon.

While the RBA is widely expected to keep the cash rate at 4.35 per cent (it would be the ninth consecutive hold), Badami said investor behaviour would “heavily depend on what the RBA does and – more importantly – what it says”.

“While most analysts expect the RBA to continue to hold rates until May 2025, what’s crucial is their reasoning and wording for keeping a rate cut off the table until then,” Badami said.

Following Tuesday’s meeting, the RBA board will next meet to discuss the cash rate in mid-February.

US stocks rose to records on Friday after data suggested the job market remained solid enough to keep the economy going, but not so strong that it raised immediate worries about inflation.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.2 per cent, just enough top the all-time high set on Wednesday, as it closed a third straight winning week in what looks to be one of its best years since the 2000 dot-com bust. The Dow Jones dipped 123.19 points, or 0.3 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite rose 0.8 per cent to set its own record.

The quiet trading came after the latest jobs report was mixed enough to strengthen traders’ expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again at its next meeting in two weeks’ time. The report showed US employers hired more workers than expected last month, but also said the unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked up to 4.2 per cent from 4.1.

Expectations for a series of cuts from the Fed have been a major reason the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 57 times this year so far. The Fed is part of a global surge: 62 central banks have lowered rates in the past three months, the most since 2020, said Michael Hartnett and other strategists at Bank of America.

Bitcoin was sitting near $US101,500 after briefly bursting above $US103,000 to a record the day before.

Tweet of the day

Quote of the day

“We’re working closely with Australian banks to arrest the decline of services in the Pacific and this announcement is an important outcome of those discussions.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, after the Commonwealth Bank announced it would establish banking operations in Nauru, a small island country in Micronesia. It will commence services in the second half of next year, after Bendigo and Adelaide Bank depart.

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The chairman of multinational paper and packaging company Visy and Pratt Industries donated the sum to MAGA Inc – a super PAC (an organisation that raises funds for the purpose of campaign advertising) supporting Trump – joining a host of wealthy donors who boosted the Trump campaign through a late influx of cash.

with AP

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