The ASX has had a rough week, shedding 3.09% over the last five days and erasing the progress made over the first four months of the year.
ASX Futures point to a small lift in trading today, up 19 points or 0.2% after US markets managed to stabilise overnight, except for the Nasdaq which shed more than 1%.
What happened overnight?
(Source: Commsec)
Investors continued to debate the timing of interest rate cuts over the pond, chewing on US Fed chair Powell’s recent comments that there had been a “lack of progress so far this year in returning to 2% inflation”.
Tech shares, highly exposed to interest rate shocks, took damage overnight while utilities climbed higher.
AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) shed 5.77% as semiconductor manufacturing equipment developer ASML (AS:ASML) revealed bookings had fallen by 61% from the first quarter, although CEO Peter Wennick suggested the second half of 2024 would see stronger semiconductor demand.
Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) also fell 4.46%, Nvidia 3.86% and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO, ETR:1YD) 3.49%.
Individual stocks also made significant moves – United Airlines lifted 17.5% after losses were lower than expected this quarter while pharmaceutical company Eli Lily gained 0.6% after reporting its weight loss drug Zepbound may help tackle sleep apnoea in patients.
In response, sleep apnoea-focused stocks fell, with Res Med shedding 5.7%.
The Dow Jones fell just 0.1% or 46 points, while the S&P500 slid 0.6% and the Nasdaq lost a full 1.1%.
In Europe, markets lifted.
Technology shares dipped 2.6% but losses were countered by an uptick in household goods stocks, which rose 1.8%.
UK inflation fell to 3.2% from 3.4% in March, just above market expectations, meanwhile, European Central Bank policymaker Robert Holzmann cited conflict in the Middle East as the biggest threat to a rate cut in Europe.
Luxury retailer LVMH gained 2.8% on a strong sales report, while Adidas (ETR:ADSGN) gained 8,6% on upgraded full-year guidance.
The DAXX was flat, French index was up 0.6% and the FTSE300 gained 0.1% while the UK FTSE100 lifted 0.4%.
Currencies and commodities
The US dollar fell against our basket of currencies overnight.
The Euro rose from US$1.0630 to near US$1.0670, the Aussie from US64.10 cents to near US64.35 cents, and the Japanese Yen lifted from 154.70 yen per US dollar to near JPY154.35 at the US close.
Global oil prices fell as fears over Israel’s retaliation to an Iranian drone attack eased, dipping 3%.
Brent crude dropped US$2.73 or 3.0% to US$87.29 a barrel and US Nymex shed US$2.67 or 0.1% to US$82.69 a barrel.
Base metals lifted overnight, regaining momentum. Copper futures rose 0.7%, aluminium futures 3.0% and iron ore lifted US$1.23 or 1.2% to US$107.30 a tonne.
The London Stock Exchange reported: “Iron ore futures rebounded on Wednesday to hit a more than five-week high, helped by an improving steel market and anticipation of pre-holiday restocking by steelmakers in top consumer China.”
On the small cap front
The ASX Small Ordinaries outperformed the ASX200 yesterday, gaining 0.60% or 18 points compared to just a 6.9-point lead for the larger ASX index.
You can read about the following and more on our website throughout the day.