Market Update & Important Indicators:
The S&P 500 fell intraday, weighed down by shares of materials companies as oil prices ebbed lower. An economic crisis in Turkey continued to spill over to global markets, leading investors to flee riskier assets like stocks. Falling oil prices to start the week also put pressure on shares of energy and materials companies. The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost about 0.5%. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite inched higher 0.1%. The move lower for the Dow and S&P comes after they finished their worst weeks in more than a month. Other global stock markets also declined Monday as Turkey's economic turmoil and fears of possible contagion continued to strain markets and drove investors to safer assets. The Turkish lira plunged 7.2%, after falling as much as 10% in Asian morning trading. One dollar buys 6.9 lira. Those losses come on top of Friday's 13.8% decline. The lira's lurch lower has raised fears that Turkey may not be able to pay back debt denominated in other currencies and rattled other emerging markets, too. On Monday, Turkey's central bank said it would provide liquidity to banks as needed, according to a statement on its website, and announced a set of measures to support the lira. The US Gold price decreased 1.5% to 1193.10 US$/oz.
The Stoxx Europe 600 closed down 0.25% at 384.91 as pharma giant Bayer slid while concerns about contagion risks in the region weighed on banking stocks. Bayer was the biggest faller, down 10.3% after recently bought Monsanto Co. was ordered to pay $289.2 million after a California state jury found Monsanto's weed killers caused cancer. Among banking stocks, Spain's BBVA was down 3.2%, Italy's UniCredit off 2.6% and BNP Paribas backtracked 1% due to concerns about their exposure to Turkey. Germany's DAX ended 0.5% lower, France's CAC 40 down 0.04%, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 down 0.3%. Italy's FTSE MIB ended down 0.6% and Spain's Ibex 35 down 0.75%.
Asian shares took a hit as market turmoil surrounding Turkey's plunging lira persisted, with many of the region's benchmark stock indexes closing down at least 1%. The Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.3% lower and Hong Kong's Hang Seng finished down 1.5%. Amid a noted risk-off market climate globally amid Turkey's travails, Japanese stocks
were among Asia's bigger decliners today as the yen received noted safe-have flows. The Nikkei dropped 2% to 21857.43 as the yen widely rose at least 0.5% versus other major currencies.
Australian stocks, like New Zealand's, held up much better than most other markets in the region as Down Under again proved today to be relative safe havens amid geopolitical worry. The S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4% to 6252.2. While the materials sector slid 1.3%, energy edged higher and consumer stables shed just 0.1%. Helping was fresh declines in the Aussie dollar, which hit the lowest levels since the start of 2017 versus the greenback in dropping below US$0.73. Ear-implant company Cochlear climbed 1% and accounting-software firm Xero rose 2.2%. But Sims Metals slumped 8.7%.
Base metal prices were again mostly down on the London Metal Exchange. The largest decline was seen in zinc that fell 3.2% to 2,470/t, and nickel that lost 2% to 13,455/t. The price of aluminium retreated 1.1% to 2,064/t, as lead gained 1.3% to end at 2,111/t.
Recent Contacts & Presentations:
Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BOT), Novo Litio (NLI), Classic Minerals (CLZ), OZ Minerals (OZL), Saturn Metals (STN), Antipa Minerals (AZY), SRG Ltd (SRG) Bowen Coking Coal (BCB), Birimian (BGS), Breaker Resources (BRB), Galena Mining (G1A), Valmec (VMX),Bryah Resources (BYH), Calima Energy (CE1) Genesis Minerals (GMD), Agrimin (AMN), Magnetic Resources (MAU), Core Exploration (CXO), Marindi Metals (MZN), MOD Resources (MOD), Santos (STO), Adriatic Metals (ADT) Bio–Gene Technology (BGT), Walkabout Resources (WKT), Triton Minerals (TON), Calima Energy (CE1), Peel Mining (PEX), Catalyst Metals (CYL), Vault Intelligence (VLT), Doray Minerals (DRM), Nzuri Coppoer (NZC), Bowen Coking Coal (BCB), Phosphagenics Limited (POH) Great Boulder Resources (GBR), Orthocell (OCC), Northern Minerals (NTU), ABM Resources Ltd (ABU), Vital Metals Ltd (VML), Todd River Resources Ltd (TRT), Pacific Energy Ltd (PEA), Carnarvon Petroleum Ltd (CVN), Australian Mines Ltd (AUZ), Australian Finance Group (AFG), Paladin Energy Ltd (PDN), Cooper Energy Ltd (COE), Medibio Ltd (MEB), Salt Lake Potash Ltd (SO4)
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