Wednesday 20th July – Australian Market Wrap | Beeks Downunder-Because not all financial news is boring!

ASX 200 sprinted 110 points higher to 6759 (1.7%) on US rally and company updates. All cylinders firing as banks, resources and industrials were bought up. Another bear rally or the real thing? The Big Bank Basket rose to $168.20 (1.0) with ANZ still in a halt. Fund managers also in demand, MQG up 3.9%, HUB rose 0.5% and Insurers also in demand, QBE up 1.0% with SUN rallying 1.1%. Even MFG had its day in the sun, up 7.0%. Healthcare bounced back with CSL up 0.2% and SHL up 2.1% as RMD rallied 2.6%. REITs flying with GMG up 3.1% and SCG up 2.5% with industrials in demand. Staples a little left behind, JBH up raced 4.6% higher post broker comments, REH doing well up 6.3%, TLS up 0.5% and ‘old skool’ REA up 2.8% with CAR up 2.6%. Tech stocks bouncing hard, WTC up 5.6%, XRO up 5.9% and ZIP doing well up 12.71%. The All–Tech Index up 3.8%. In resources it was all systems go, BHP up 1.4%, FMG up 5.2% and even gold miners doing ok, NCM up 2.8% and BGL up 3.7%. Lithium in demand, LTR soaring 10.4%, PDN rallying 10.5% and SLX up 12.4% on good news. Oil and gas stocks rallied, WDS up 0.4% and STO 2.1% higher. In corporate news, MP1 silenced the bears with a better than expected update, rising 23.0%, ILU rallied 7.2% on a strategic update. SMP up 18.4% on a trading update, BUB up 6.5% on a update on I’m Biden , Fly me. AKE shrugged of early losses after its quarterly report, up 0.9%, BPT up 2.8% on its quarterly. In economic news, Phil Lowe gave a speech and admitted RBA had been too pessimistic on economy. Asian markets better and 10-year yields up to 3.54%

Winners: MP1, BRN. SLX, PDN, LTR, NAN, NEA, 29M, 360, RWC.
Losers: MYX, NHF, RIC, DBI, ECX, RED, PDL
Positive sectors: Everything
Negative sectors: Nothing
High 6776 Low 6662
Big Bank Basket: Surges to $168.20(1.0%)
All-Tech index: Up 3.8%
Gold: Lower at $2472
Bitcoin: Higher again at US$23,438
Aussie Dollar: Better at 69.21c on Lowe speech.
10-Year Yield: Better at 3.54%
Asian markets: Japan up 2.5%. China up 0.2% and HK up 1.5%
US Futures: Dow up 128 Nasdaq up 51
European markets opening around 0.6% higher.

MAJOR MOVERS

WHC +3.54% MS ups PT to 850c.
MP1+23.03% business update pleases.
AGL +2.70% JP Morgan upgrade on power prices.
SLX +12.37% positive pilot plant announcement.
BRN +14.14% solid bounce continues.
PNI +7.29% fund managers doing better.
SMP +18.42% trading update.
4DS +13.40% catches the BRN bug.
VMY +11.11% vote to merge with Big Yellow.
ZIP +12.71% tech bounce
DSK +8.88% trading update.
ARL +15.51% quarterly report glow continues.
PDL -2.03% talks with PTM. No deal yet.
Speculative Stock of the Day: Thin volumes again, Victory Goldfields (1VG) +23.08% high value critical rare earth discovery in Stanmore VIC.

IN THE NEWS

Bubs Australia (BUB) Q4 gross revenue $48.1m, +278% vs a year ago. Expects margin accretive growth to continue. Anticipates FY23 revenue and margin contribution will be largely attributed to growth in China and the USA.
Beach Energy (BPT) Q4 production 5.6MMboe vs quarter-ago 5.2MMboe. FY production 21.8MMboe vs guidance 21.0-23.0MMboe. FY capital expenditure $872m vs guidance of $900-1000m.
Cooper Energy (COE) Q4 revenue $61.1m vs year-ago $47.1m.
United Malt Group (UMG) CFO Amy Spanik resigns, Ryan Dutcher appointed interim CFO.
Atlas Arteria (ALX) reported higher traffic across its assets in the second quarter, boosted by strong performance on France’s Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhone (APRR). Weighted-average traffic was 21.2% higher in the three-month period and weighted-average toll revenue was 18.9% higher than Q2 2021, the company reported. Traffic at APRR was 22.3% higher from the same period last year and up 1.7% higher than Q2 2019.
Northern Star Resources (NST) Q4 gold sold 402,069oz at an AISC of $1,650/oz.
Iluka Resources (ILU) Q2 Z/R/SR production 189Kt vs quarter-ago 180Kt, increases FY cost guidance.
Allkem (AKE) Mt Cattlin achieved record financial year production of 193,563 dry metric tonnes (“dmt”) of spodumene concentrate in FY22. Customer demand in the spodumene market remains robust and spodumene concentrate pricing in the September quarter is expected to be higher than the June quarter.
Plenti (PLT) finished financial 2022 with 90% growth in its loan book to $1.44bn from $757m, or growth of 11% quarter-on-quarter from $1.3bn.

ECONOMIC NEWS/ BOND MARKETS

Governor Philip Lowe has indicated the official interest rate could double in coming months. Lowe stressed the importance of getting inflation back to within the bank’s 2 to 3% target band.
Government launches long overdue review of the RBA.
UBS’s tracking of prices of about 60,000 grocery items at the two major supermarket chains, Woolworths and Coles showed food prices rose at 5.3% in the June quarter. price rises were highest in fresh produce at 5.5%.
Westpac has today raised its fixed home loan rates by 0.60% for owner-occupiers and investors on all fixed rate terms. 1-year fixed rates are now 4.59%, up from 4.09% 3-year fixed rates are now 5.69% and 5-year rates 5.99%.
3-year fixed rates (for owner-occupiers paying principal and interest) at CBA are 6.39%, ANZ at 5.79% and NAB at 5.89%.

ASIAN MARKETS

Chinese junk dollar bonds are hovering near a record low set in March.
China has been speeding up approvals for new coal-fired power plants.
Suppliers to Chinese real estate developers are refusing to repay bank loans because of unpaid bills owed to them

US AND EUROPEAN HEADLINES

European markets set for strong open. Earnings come from AkzoNobel and ASML.
UK Inflation even higher than the temperatures.
UK Inflation at 9.4% Y/Y Core CPI ex energy, food up 5.8% in line. PPI up 16.5%. June PPI prices 24% up. German PPI for June up 32.7% Y/Y.
Sunak set to run off against Truss for Tory leadership.
Cathie Wood is closing down one of her exchange-traded funds. ARK Transparency ETF (CTRU), which launched at the end of last year. The fund only attracted $12m in funds. It is down 30% since debut.
ECB expected to raise rates by 50bps tomorrow and help indebted countries like Italy with its anti-fragmentation tool. First rise in 11-years! Would still only be 0%.