Good Morning Fellow Traders Shares overcame early losses to end...

Good Morning Fellow Traders

Shares overcame early losses to end the day modestly higher, thanks in large part to buying in the big banks and Telstra, as investors contended with one of the busiest days of the August reporting season.
The relatively mild 28-point move higher in the S&P/ASX 200 index to the day's high of 5785 points concealed some spicier action among the ASX's blue-chip names.

CSL, one of the outstanding performers on the bourse over the course of many years, dropped 1.5 per cent after the blood plasma giant reported good, but not good enough, annual profit figures. Online job classifieds business Seek lost 3.2 per cent on its earnings result, as the popular stock failed to live up to expectations.
Also weighing on the sharemarket was a 1.7 per cent drop in CBA and a 3.8 per cent fall in Suncorp, as both traded without the right to their respective upcoming dividends.

Two of the day's winners from the day's reporters were in the oil and gas sector, with Origin Energy adding 5.4 per cent and Woodside Petroleum 2.6 per cent. Origin managed to climb as investors shrugged off a $2.2 billion net loss, driven by well-flagged $3.1 billion in writedowns, mostly related to the value of its liquefied natural gas project. Those two results helped make energy the best performing sector on the ASX.

Also helping buoy the market on Wednesday were two other bluechips, Telstra and QBE, which lifted in the vicinity of 2 per cent ahead of their own profit releases on Thursday.

A fourth straight session of losses for Chinese iron ore futures made for subdued trading in Rio Tinto, which shed 0.1 per cent, while Fortescue Metals managed to climb 0.7 per cent. BHP Billiton added 0.2 per cent amid gains in the price of crude oil through Wednesday's session.
Investors pushed Iluka Resources 1.1 per cent higher despite news emerging that the miner had uncovered evidence of bribery related to an acquisition it had made in Sierra Leone.

Among the day's best was Domino's Pizza Enterprises, which bounced 7.2 per cent to claw back some of its heavy losses the day prior, even as analysts downgraded the stock and slashed their share price targets.

The zinc price hit its highest in almost a decade, as Chinese infrastructure demand that has fed a rally in steel prices for months spills into markets for steelmaking raw materials. LME zinc peaked at $US2990 a tonne, taking prices back to their most expensive since October 2007. The rally in zinc, used for galvanising steel, comes as China steps up plans to develop infrastructure while capacity cuts in its steel industry reform boost prices. "There (was) a fair level of scepticism at the start of the year when China's infrastructure projects were announced but we're seeing much better-than-expected growth in fixed asset investment," said ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes.

While the ASX 200 remains stuck below 6000 points, New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index continues to outperform, hitting a new record high of 7853.9 on Wednesday. The The NZX is up 14 per cent this year, outclassing the ASX's 2 per cent gain and despite the local economy's prospects starting to look a bit more promising than New Zealand's. Leading the kiwi index higher this year have been A2Milk, with a jump of 136 per cent, followed by Xero, up 54 per cent, and Air New Zealand, up 50 per cent. Among the few laggards are Sky Network TV and Fletcher Building, down 30 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.

Iron ore in the $US70s a tonne may be as good as it gets for some time. After rallying hard in June and July, the commodity is expected to see its gains unravel over the second half as steel production in China eases back from a record pace just as global miners pump up volumes. "There was some fundamental support for iron ore's rally, namely strong growth in China's steel output," Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics, said. "Stocks at China's ports are now stubbornly high and if, as seems likely, steel production and demand eases back later in the year, then we see iron ore prices coming under renewed pressure."

In the U.S. Wall Street edged higher on Wednesday but closed well off session highs and the dollar fell on the latest turmoil in Washington and U.S. Federal Reserve meeting minutes that showed worries about low inflation.
U.S. Treasury yields fell with benchmark yields retreating from one-week highs after the July meeting minutes and as investors worried that a backlash against President Donald Trump's comments after a violent weekend rally would stunt his ability to deliver on his pro-business promises.

Fed policymakers were ready to roll a plan to shrink its balance sheet but were increasingly wary about weak inflation and some called for a halt to interest rate hikes until it was clear the trend was transitory, according to the minutes.
"Maybe they're a little more malleable in their views than a lot of people thought," said Nathan Thooft, head of asset allocation at Manulife Asset Management in Boston. "Risk assets are OK with it because they don't want a shock to the upside on yields."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 25.88 points, or 0.12 percent, to 22,024.87, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 3.5 points, or 0.14 percent, to 2,468.11 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 12.10 points, or 0.19 percent, to 6,345.11.
U.S. stocks got a boost from the Fed minutes but still ended below their highs. Sellers emerged when Trump disbanded two high-profile advisory councils after several CEOs quit to protest his comments about violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"This calls into question the ability of the Trump administration to get anything done in terms of tax and infrastructure reforms. It's another piece of evidence of the administration's mounting problems," said John Doyle, Director of markets at Tempus Consulting in Washington.
After touching its highest level in nearly three weeks earlier in the session, the U.S. dollar fell against a basket of rival currencies, after the business council news and the Fed minutes.

The dollar index .DXY fell 0.36 percent, with the euro EUR= up 0.27 percent to $1.1765.
U.S. Treasury yields were lower in late trading after the Fed minutes and were still near session lows reached earlier in the day as investors increased bids for government debt on the Washington news.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 11/32 in price to yield 2.229 percent, from 2.266 percent late on Tuesday.

The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last rose 18/32 in price to yield 2.8127 percent, from 2.84 percent late on Tuesday.
Oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Wednesday even though U.S. crude stockpiles declined by the most in a year, as data suggesting domestic production was edging higher stoked worries about the global crude glut.

U.S. crude CLcv1 fell 1.6 percent to $46.79 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $50.33, down 0.93 percent on the day.
Spot gold XAU= reversed course and added 0.8 percent to $1,281.70 an ounce shaking off two days of losses as the dollar fell after the Fed minutes.
Copper CMCU3 rose 2.09 percent to $6,512.31 a ton.

Source: Netwealth Morning Business Roundup

Looking after your insides - brekky today is vegetable fritters with tomato relish and very green juice.

  

Happy trading and may there be a few runners. It's Black Cat Appreciation Day. Don't have one myself. The dog and bird would have some objections.