Good morning traders. Thanks @ttward, @Ravgnome & the aftermarket loungers. A messy day to wake up to regarding the markets, I don’t imagine PB is going to be too happy going through her charts this morning.
ASX Market Report
The Australian share market closed lower, pulled down by the financial sector as two banks went ex-dividend and housing finance approvals came in weaker than expected. "It's a pretty ugly day, and the only positive thing I could say is it could have been a lot worse," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist with CMC Markets, who noted the Shanghai composite tumbled more than one per cent.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished down 13.3 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 6,297.6 points at 1615 AEST on Monday, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 11.8 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 6,381.3.
Financial shares collectively fell 1.84 per cent as ANZ and Macquarie traded ex-dividend and the ABS reported that housing finance approvals weakened again in March, more than reversing a slight gain in February. The total number of owner-occupied loan approvals, excluding refinancing, declined 2.8 per per cent, compared with forecasts of a 0.5 per cent decline, a figure Mr McCarthy called "shockingly bad". ANZ was down 3.89 per cent to $26.43, NAB was down 1.97 per cent to $25.43 and Commonwealth Bank declined 2.52 per cent to $73.50 after it reported it was setting aside another $714 million for customer remediation. Macquarie Group was down 3.59 per cent to $120.16. The outlier was Westpac, which only fell 0.37 per cent to $27.12.
The miners were up collectively half a per cent, with BHP gaining 0.35 per cent to $36.93 and Rio Tinto up 0.8 per cent to $96.03.
Lendlease gained 8.71 per cent to $13.85 after The Australian reported the property company was the target of a takeover bid by a Japanese company, believed to be Mitsui. Lendlease said it hadn't been approached by any suitor.
Telecommunications shares gained 0.82 per cent, with Telstra climbing 1.17 per cent to $3.45.
Reliance Worldwide shares fell 15.6 per cent to $3.89 after the plumbing supplies company issued an earnings warning, saying the mild winter in the southern US had resulted in far fewer burst pipes than normal, costing the company $12 million to $15 million in lost revenue.
Fonterra shares rose 0.74 per cent to $4.06 after the New Zealand dairy cooperative sold its Tip Top ice cream brand to global ice cream giant Froneri for $NZ380 million ($A358m), $NZ100 million more than book value.
AusNet was down 1.08 per cent after the energy company said its net profit after tax for the year ended March 31 had fallen 12.9 per cent.
Eclipx Group was down 4.69 per cent after the fleet leaser said it was selling its GraysOnline and Right2Drive businesses after first-half impairments of up to $130 million.
CSL was up 1.42 per cent to $200.05.
The Aussie dollar is buying 69.75 US cents, from 69.94 US cents on Friday.
ON THE ASX:
* The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 13.3 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 6,297.6 points at 1630 AEST on Monday.
* The All Ordinaries was down 11.8 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 6,381.3.
* At 1630 AEST, the SPI200 futures index was up one points, or 0.02 per cent, at 6,297.
CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 1630 AEST:
One Australian dollar buys:
* 69.76 US cents, from 69.94 US cents on Friday
* 76.53 Japanese yen, from 76.79 yen
* 62.10 euro cents, from 62.34 euro cents
* 53.60 British pence, from 53.80 pence
* 106.00 NZ cents, from 106.12 cents
Global Markets Report
Global stock markets tumbled on Monday and the Chinese yuan weakened to its lowest level since December as the trade war between the United States and China escalated.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 617.38 points, or 2.38%, to 25,324.99, the S&P 500 lost 69.53 points, or 2.41%, to 2,811.87 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 269.92 points, or 3.41%, to 7,647.02. The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 1.21%. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 1.90%, its biggest one-day drop in more than five months as it touched a two-month low.
China said it would impose higher tariffs on a range of U.S. goods, striking back in its trade war with Washington shortly after President Donald Trump warned it not to retaliate in the long-running trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies. Trump said he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping next month. Investors piled into safe-haven assets, including U.S. Treasuries and the Japanese yen. “It’s clear that there is a lot of nervousness around the U.S.-China trade negotiations and concern that it’s really deteriorating pretty significantly and that’s impacting all areas of markets,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco in New York.
China’s finance ministry said it plans to set import tariffs ranging from 5 percent to 25 percent on a target list worth about $60 billion. Trump on Friday ordered his trade chief to begin the process of imposing tariffs on all remaining imports from China, but investors had taken solace in some comments from officials about the negotiations. “The market thought it was positioning and at the end of the day there would be a deal and that over the weekend they would work things out and that is clearly not the way this thing is going,” said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont. “The market has been looking around for an excuse to correct. We were straight up from Christmas,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago. “We now have an excuse to have a correction.”
In currencies, the yuan weakened to as far as 6.92 against the U.S. dollar, its lowest level since Dec. 24. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was flat, with the euro down 0.04% to $1.1228.
U.S. Treasury yields fell to six-week lows as investors piled into low-risk assets. Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 15/32 in price to yield 2.4015%, from 2.455% late on Friday. Ten-year yields fell below those on three-month Treasury bills. A sustained inversion of this part of the yield curve has preceded every U.S. recession in the past 50 years.
Spot gold added 1.1% to $1,299.72 an ounce.
Oil futures fell as worries about the trade talks spooked investors who had initially sent oil higher on concerns that tanker attacks in the Middle East could disrupt supplies. U.S. crude settled down 1% at $61.04 a barrel, while Brent settled at $70.23 a barrel, down 0.55%.
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A bit on the bloody cold side this morning, wouldn't mind being down on a nice hot beach right now.
