Good Morning Fellow Traders,
Thanks @Quantum Torus @Ravgnome and AM Loungers. Last time I saw a list as long as @Ravgnome's 52 week low one, I was flipping through the White Pages. Looks like we may have some reprieve today and see green shoots appear.
Australia's leading share index tanked Thursday, wiping out this year's gains as traders tracked a global sell-off, with financial services giant AMP plunging almost 25 percent.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 ended 2.83 percent down at 5,664.10, its lowest since October last year.
Resource and consumer-focused companies led the sell-off, which echoed Wednesday's action on markets from New York to London to Tokyo.
Lacklustre US corporate earnings, concerns about President Donald Trump's trade policies, the expectation of tighter monetary policy and geopolitical tensions have fuelled market unease.
"Investor confidence is hitting lower levels and with no real new positive news, the downside trend continued," said Nick Twidale of Rakuten Securities Australia.
AMP shares collapsed 24.47 percent to Aus$2.50 as it announced the sale of its insurance businesses to Resolution Life for Aus$3.3 billion (US$2.3 billion) and revealed massive cash outflows in the third quarter.
The firm was a key target of a royal commission of inquiry this year into abuses in the Australian financial services sector, accused of a raft of misconduct including charging clients for advice they never received.
U.S. stocks followed Europe higher on Thursday after investors ventured into risky bets again with encouragement from some strong earnings and the dollar rose against the euro after remarks from Europe’s Central Bank chief fueled fears about the monetary union.
Oil prices stabilized after an early sell-off as investors returned their focus to the fundamentals of supply and demand as equity markets regained some lost ground.
The greenback rose against the euro after the ECB’s Mario Draghi reaffirmed that its 2.6-trillion euro ($2.97 trillion) asset purchase program will end this year and interest rates could rise after next summer even though the economic outlook has darkened and political turmoil looms in Italy.
While equity investors sought bargains and some were reassured by positive earnings and stronger technology stocks, they also voiced caution.
“There’s a sense of nervousness and caution because a lot of people were caught off guard by the drop yesterday,” Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida said.
“At this point it’s all about sentiment. People are looking for things to settle down and I think we need to see more concrete evidence of that.”
Wall Street was helped by reassuring results from Microsoft Corp (
MSFT.O) and strong advertising revenues from Twitter Inc (
TWTR.N). Google-parent Alphabet (
GOOGL.O) and Amazon.com (
AMZN.O) were among the top boosters of the S&P ahead of their results later.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
.DJI rose 375.12 points, or 1.53 percent, to 24,958.54, the S&P 500
.SPX gained 47.06 points, or 1.77 percent, to 2,703.16 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 196.21 points, or 2.76 percent, to 7,304.61.
The pan-European STOXX 600 was darting in and out of positive territory. It rose 0.51 percent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.70 percent.
Draghi said he was confident the European Commission and Rome would come to a compromise over Rome’s budget plans, but the euro reversed earlier gains after he said the monetary union remained fragile.
The dollar index .DXY rose 0.18 percent, with the euro
EUR= down 0.15 percent to $1.1374.
Source: Netwealth Morning Business Roundup
Tank up on Chorizo, Mushroom and Brie on Sour Dough Toast. Coffee too suit all tastes.
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