Happy Friday and good morning traders. Thanks @ttward, @Ravgnome & the aftermarket loungers, and a shoutout to @Cleo who stopped by the AM lounge last night.

February now in the rear-view mirrors, can’t complain about how it went. The XJO putting on another 5% or so for the month, and quite amazingly only sitting around 3% off testing the late August 2018 highs.

 

It's a new month, but we are still dealing with the same old things that troubled the market throughout 2018. Tarrifs, Brexit,  growth slowdown, political sideshows, it's seldom dull at least.

ASX Market Report

Australian shares have rebounded to close higher for another day, the last official day of earnings season.

After being down in the morning, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed up 18.7 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 6,169 points at 1615 AEDT on Thursday.

The broader All Ordinaries was up 19.1 points, or 0.31 per cent, at 6,252.7.

The ASX has now closed higher eight of the last 10 sessions.

The health care sector led gainers, moving up 2.61 per cent after Ramsay Health Care reported increased profit. Ramsay moved up 5.9 per cent.

Financials were up 0.79 per cent, with all of the big banks in the green.

Two stocks that have been under pressure - biotechnology company CSL and National Australia Bank - were among the best performers in the two sectors, said CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy. "It does point to the idea that there's bargain hunting," he said. CSL gained 3.1 per cent and NAB was up 1.29 per cent.

On the flip side, miners struggled after the price of iron ore dropped, with South32 down 1.01 per cent and BHP down 1.19 per cent after announcing changes to its leadership team.

Fortescue Metals closed down 5.16 per cent after going ex-dividend.

Woolworths also went ex-dividend, falling 1.1 per cent.

Rio Tinto closed up 1.09 per cent after reporting late on Wednesday its highest annual underlying earnings since 2014, and announcing a special dividend.

Harvey Norman closed up 1.12 per cent after it lifted first-half profit 7.3 per cent to $222.8 million, despite weak sales at its Australian franchises.

Ingham's Group was down 8.18 per cent after it said first-half profit increased more than 28 per cent.

Adelaide Brighton was down 4.42 per cent after the building firm said it expects a decline in demand in the residential sector.

Bubs closed 5.08 per cent lower after the infant formula maker reported its first-half loss more than doubled to $8.8 million as it invested in scaling up to meet demand from China.

With earnings season now officially concluded, Mr McCarthy said he'd argue it was overall "slightly disappointing" with softer earnings than expected. Still the ASX ended the month 5.19 per cent higher than where it began.

One theme for the season was short-sellers being a key driver of volatility for heavily shorted stocks such as Galaxy Resources, Mr McCarthy said. Eyes will now turn to macroeconomic issues and the prospect of a long-term agreement to end the US-China trade war, he said.

President Donald Trump last weekend announced the talks were making progress and he delayed a scheduled increase in tariffs on China that had been set for Friday.

ON THE ASX:

* The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 18.7 points, or 0.33 per cent, at 6,169 points at 1630 AEDT on Thursday.

* The All Ordinaries was up 19.1 points, or 0.31 per cent, at 6,252.7

* At 1630 AEDT, the SPI200 futures index was down five points, to 6144.

CURRENCY SNAPSHOT AT 1630 AEDT:

One Australian dollar buys:

* 71.44 US cents, from 71.87 US on Thursday

* 79.24 Japanese yen, from 79.48

* 62.81 euro cents, from 63.17

* 53.71 British pence, from 54.26

* 104.36 NZ cents, from 104.30

GOLD:

The spot price of gold in Sydney at 1630 AEDT was $US1318.70 per fine ounce, from $US1329.38 on Thursday.

In Asia

Asian stocks fell on Thursday as investors dialed back some of their recent optimism about a Sino-China trade deal while news that the U.S.-North Korean summit in Hanoi was ending early rattled confidence late in the trading day.

The White House said on Thursday U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not reach an agreement at the end of two days of meetings but had constructive discussions on denuclearization.

South Korea’s KOSPI finished 1.7 percent lower, extending earlier losses just before the market close after both leaders brought forward the schedule of their second day of summit talks in Vietnam by almost two hours.

“Prior hopes were not that high towards the summit producing concrete agreements, but most expected the two leaders to end the meeting with a handshake. So the markets are reacting to the headlines,” said Shusuke Yamada, chief Japan FX strategist at Bank Of America Merrill Lynch.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.7 percent as more weak data weighed on sentiment. Figures released on Thursday showed factory activity contracted for the third straight month in February as export orders fell to the lowest level since the global crisis.

“As for tensions between India and Pakistan, it is a concern. But it remains a regional topic for the moment and the overall market impact has been limited thus far.”

The conflict between India and Pakistan heated up after both said on Wednesday that they shot down each other’s fighter aircraft.

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In Europe

European shares scored a second straight month of gains in February after a choppy session on Thursday when optimism about European banks offset caution over U.S.-China trade.

After spending much of the day in the red, the pan-regional STOXX 600 index closed up 0.1 percent, in touching distance of four-month highs.

On a monthly basis, European shares rose 3.9 percent after a 6.2 percent increase in January.

Traders blamed the uncertainty over the outcome of the Sino-U.S. talks for the lack of a decisive directional trend.

“What we’re really waiting for, is more concrete news on trade”, said Mikael Jacoby, head of continental European Equity sales trading at Oddo Securities. “We are in a status quo at the moment,” he added.

Milan scored the best performance among regional bourses with a 0.8 percent rise, helped by the weight of Italian banks in Italy’s FTSE MIB index.

The European banking index rose 0.95 percent amid hopes the European Central Bank (ECB) may embark in a new program to ease refinancing in the sector.

“The (ECB) March meeting will be the first to discuss this formally and we expect some signaling, if not a full announcement, of a TLTRO3 (Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations) to be implemented by June,” analysts at Societe Generale wrote in a note.

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In the United States

Wall Street’s main indexes struggled for direction on Thursday as an abrupt end to a U.S.-North Korean summit and a clutch of weak earnings hit sentiment, with a better-than-feared GDP data offering some support.

President Donald Trump said he had walked away from a nuclear deal at his summit with Kim Jong Un in Vietnam because of unacceptable demands from the North Korean leader to lift U.S.-led sanctions.

“After the lack of results from the North Korean summit, there could be some nervousness about the possibility of similar results coming out of China tariff negotiations,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“But the biggest factor is that we’ve had a sharp rise since the Christmas Eve lows. A lot of people are just nervous that we’ve come too far too fast.”

The S&P 500 index is set to record its third straight day of losses, after being boosted in the recent weeks by optimism around trade and dovish signals from the Federal Reserve. The benchmark index is about 5 percent away from its September record closing high.

At 12:51 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 29.20 points, or 0.11 percent, at 25,955.96. The S&P 500 was down 0.92 points, or 0.03 percent, at 2,791.46 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 3.46 points, or 0.05 percent, at 7,557.97.

Of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the energy sector was the biggest loser, with a 1 percent fall, as crude prices eased. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.22-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 37 new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 49 new highs and 28 new lows.

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Upcoming Earnings Reports

Via Earnings Whispers

Australian News

The housing industry has warned a cut in migrant numbers could force the Reserve Bank into slicing interest rates to prop up a struggling property market that is already facing a 15 per cent drop in new home starts this year. Releasing its latest forecasts, the Housing Industry Association on Thursday said there were already worrying signs about the fall in new construction driven by falling house prices. 
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Australian home loans rose at their slowest monthly pace in more than four years in January, with the annual rate the weakest on record, as credit tightening by banks and a sharp fall in housing prices turn off demand. 
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The stubbornly low rate of new home builds has forced BGC Group to defer the sale of its building and materials construction businesses amid a radical executive shake-up of the $3 billion empire. In an update on the divestment of the group’s sprawling business interests today, chairman Neil Hamilton said the board had decided market conditions were “not conducive to any near-term plan” to offload those businesses. 
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Hayne response should top to-do list of NAB's Chronican, say analysts. National Australia Bank acting chief executive Phil Chronican's top priority should be to deal with the serious problems exposed at the royal commission, say investors and analysts, as the finance veteran takes the reins at the big four lender. 
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ANZ has overhauled its leadership structure in Australia following last year's departure of retail chief Fred Ohlsson, giving two executives joint responsibility for the bank's local financial performance. 
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Women managers to wait 20 years for parity. Women will have to wait another 20 years to reach parity with men in most management roles, a new report shows. The report, released on Friday by Curtin University and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, found women are underpaid and under-represented in leadership positions. 
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Global News

 The U.S. economy fell short of the Trump administration’s 3 percent annual growth target in 2018 despite $1.5 trillion in tax cuts and a government spending blitz, and economists say growth will only slow from here.

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GDP surprise chalked up to unexpected consumer spending during shutdown, R&D growth 
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US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that the US supported a push by France for a minimum corporate tax rate for developed countries worldwide, a move aimed at curbing tax avoidance by multinationals. "It's something we absolutely support, that there's not a chase to the bottom on taxation," Mnuchin said in Paris after talks with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire. 
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US ditches China tariff hike 'until further notice' 
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US companies in China forecast a gloomy year ahead, with many worrying about a deterioration in bilateral trade ties and nearly a quarter delaying investments, a business survey showed Tuesday. The survey of 314 US businesses by the American Chamber of Commerce in China provided a full accounting of challenges American business face after Beijing and Washington exchanged tit-for-tat tariffs on more than $300 billion in two-way trade. 
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Facebook's feature allowing users to erase all their data is set to be released this year,many months after it was announced by the leading social network. David Wehner, Facebook's chief financial officer, said in comments Tuesday at a Morgan Stanley technology conference that the company is planning to roll out the feature that was announced last May amid heightened scrutiny over Facebook's privacy. 
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Huawei units plead not guilty to U.S. trade secret theft 
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French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that the "time has come" for British leaders to decide on how the country will leave the EU, amid indications that London might seek to delay Brexit until after March 29. "As Michel Barnier has said, we don't need more time, what we need most of all is a decision," Macron said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris, referring to the EU's chief Brexit negotiator. 
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Minister Resigns, Fearing National ‘Humiliation’: Brexit Update. Theresa May’s move to allow Parliament to delay Brexit has cost her a junior minister. Negotiations continue on her unpopular deal, and the European Union has questioned what the point of an extension would be. 
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Premier League champions Manchester City have signed a long-term kit deal with Germany's Puma, replacing their current agreement with Nike. The size of the deal was not disclosed, but media reports suggest it could be worth up to £65m a year for 10 years.
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Hong Kong's economy grew at the slowest pace for almost three years in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan, who revealed the finer details of the 2019/20 fiscal year budget on Wednesday. As economic uncertainty and trade frictions abound, Hong Kong has introduced a raft of relief measures for both enterprises and individuals with the aim of kick starting a flagging domestic economy, though the budget was less expansionary overall. 
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Why Nintendo keeps returning to classics like Pokémon. Nintendo knows how to capitalize on a successful game. On Wednesday, the Japanese gaming company announced the launch of two new Pokémon games on its Switch console: Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. 
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was notified Thursday that the attorney general plans to put him on trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, following a two-year investigation that has galvanized a serious election challenge and could speed the end of his political career. 
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Stock News

Alkane Resources posts half-yearly revenues of $52 million as Tomingley gold production moves underground 
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Silver City Minerals Ltd’s (ASX:SCI) substantial shareholder Gavin Wates & Upsky Equity Pty Ltd has increased its holding in the company to 6.46% from 5.04%. Upsky Equity acquired shares worth $50,000 earlier this week through an off-market transfer to increase its interest by 1.42%. 
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New Age Exploration raising $940,500 to advance UK, New Zealand projects. New Age’s Redmoor resource in the UK now ranks as the largest undeveloped tin or tungsten underground mining project in the world. 
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Nexus Minerals secures $1.25 million; share purchase plan opens. Opportunity for eligible shareholders to purchase up to $15,000 of Nexus shares without incurring brokerage or transaction costs. 
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Coal-fired power companies have been named as Australia's largest polluters by the Clean Energy Regulator, dominating the list of the top 10 biggest carbon emitters. The level of scope-one emissions, which are created directly from a company's activity, stayed broadly flat year on year at 336 million tonnes, the regulator's latest data shows. 
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Decmil doubles revenue for a $5.8 million interim profit 
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Bubs' first-half loss more than doubled to $8.8 million after the infant formula maker invested in scaling up to meet demand from China. 
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Daigou-focused retailer AuMake has halved its losses after more than doubling its sales revenue in the space of a year, and is aiming for a bigger bite of the $2 billion cross-border commerce market. 
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Govt leaves call on Layer 3 wireless intervention to NBN Co. The government has lent “in principle” support to the idea of traffic management on the NBN fixed wireless network, but will leave the final call to NBN Co. 
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Hospital operator Ramsay Health Care says it is on track to meet its full-year guidance after lifting first-half profit 9.6 per cent to $270.4 million. 
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Struggling Gloria Jeans and Donut King operator Retail Food Group has slumped to an $111 million first half loss as cafe sales dive, outlets are shut, and poor press clings to franchise opportunities. Profit at the Brumby's Bakery, Crust, and Michel's Patisserie owner fell by 25 per cent for the six months to December 31 following $123.7 million in impairments, write-downs and provisioning, while total revenue dipped 3.4 per cent to $170 million 
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The competition watchdog has waved through Bingo's acquisition of rival Dial-a-Dumpon condition the ASX-listed waste management firm divests its eastern Sydney recycling centre. 
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New revenue streams are flowing at Reece Limited as the plumbing supplier's US and New Zealand acquisitions lift sales to the top end of guidance. But the company's share price was subdued on Thursday following softer Australian housing market data, while new costs kept a lid on net profit. 
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Hope its a positive end to the week and start of a new month for you all.