Morning traders. Thanks loungers, especially @Ravgnome.
Outlook for the day: Mildly positive following gains in key commodities and a mixed night on Wall Street.
ASX futures: up six points or 0.08%
Overnight themes:
- Wall Street's main indices suffer mixed fortunes as investors digest the latest trading updates.
- A guidance upgrade from Johnson & Johnson helps the Dow book a ninth straight gain, its longest win streak since 2017.
- The S&P 500 and Nasdaq sink after Netflix misses revenue expectations and Tesla reports margin pressure. Netflix drops 8.41%. Tesla shes 9.74%, its heaviest loss in three months.
- The Nasdaq's fall is the largest since March, denting a rally that has lifted the index 34.4% this year.
- "The news last night in Tesla and Netflix, while it’s not the end of the world does give people a reason to wake up and go 'wow, maybe I shouldn’t be chasing these names up here'. Let me take some money off the table and redeploy it into big boring names" - Ken Polcari, managing partner at Kace Capital Advisors.
- FactSet reports 74% of companies that have reported so far this season have beaten analyst forecasts.
- Utilities, health and energy are the pick of the sectors, all gaining at least 1.2%. Growth sectors are the biggest drag.
- Crude, base metals and iron ore rise following reports of Chinese plans to support the struggling property sector.
- A strengthening US dollar weighs on precious metals and erodes yesterday's rally in the Australian dollar.
Key events today:
- No major releases scheduled here or overseas
S&P 500: down 31 points or 0.68%
Dow: up 164 points or 0.47%
Nasdaq: down 295 points or 2.05%
Dollar: up 0.11% to 67.78 US cents
Iron ore (Dalian): up 1.7% to US$118.25
Brent crude: up 18 US cents or 0.2% to US$79.64
Gold: down US$9.90 or 0.5% to US$1,970.90
NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: down 2.96%
Copper (LME): up 0.34% to US$8,457.50
Nickel (LME): up 2.01% to US$21,320
Global X Lithium & Battery Tech ETF: down 1.37%
BHP: up 0.45% (US); up 1.36% (UK)
Rio Tinto: up 0.56% (US); up 1.53% (UK)
