Market Update & Important Indicators
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell Monday, putting the blue-chip index on track for its third consecutive session of declines. Some investors said they were awaiting a string of earnings results this week and a policy statement from the Federal Reserve due Wednesday. Economists don't expect a change in U.S. interest rates, but the central bank could announce the beginning of its balance-sheet reduction. The Dow industrials fell 43 points, or 0.2%, to 21537. The S&P 500 shed less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2%. A number of technology heavyweights are scheduled to report earnings this week, including Google-parent Alphabet, Facebook and Amazon.com. Also Monday, shares of utilities companies fell alongside U.S. government bond prices. The rate-sensitive sector slid 0.8% and was the S&P 500's worst performer, while the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.255%, according to Tradeweb, from 2.232% Friday. Yields rise as prices fall. The U.S. gold price gained slightly on Monday night, moving up $0.50 to finish at 1,255.00 US$/oz.
European stocks closed lower Monday, with shares of German auto makers and Dutch firm Gemalto among those pushing the market to its weakest finish in two weeks. The Stoxx Europe 600 was off 0.2% to end at 379.23, adding to its recent retreat and notching its lowest close since July 11. The index on Friday slid 1%, contributing to last week's loss of 1.9%. Early Monday, data showed the eurozone economy slowed in July, with Markit saying its composite Purchasing Managers Index fell to 55.8 in July from 56.3 in June. That was below the 56.2 reading expected by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
Asian stocks started off soft but saw buying as the day progressed, leaving most indexes up for the day. That as a respite in the dollar's selling helped the Japanese index rebound from session lows of about 1%, though it still ended down 0.6%. Among the highlights, Korean and Indian indexes hit fresh records while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.5% to hit another 2-year high after having climbed in 9 of the past 11 weeks. The Shanghai Composite, up five straight weeks, added 0.4%. But Chinese small caps continued to lag. In other countries, stock gains were slight.
Sharp falls in energy stocks and a further pullback by the major banks from recent gains added to a broad sell-off Monday, pulling Australia's stock market lower for a second straight session. A brief rebound in investor sentiment last week has faded even as the Australian currency has pushed higher against a weakened U.S. dollar and ahead of the start of the local earnings season from next week. Spending the day in negative territory, the S&P/ASX 200 finished 34.7 points, or 0.6%, lower at 5688.1. The energy sector sank 2.7% after crude-oil prices fell sharply Friday ahead of a meeting between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-OPEC countries, although prices steadied in Asian trading. The biggest banks, which are among the largest stocks in the index, weighed heavily as they gave up some more of a brief rally mid last week after the industry regulator's fresh rules on capital requirements were released.
The London Metal Exchange's three-month copper contract gained 0.4% overnight to close at $6,027/t. All other base metals finished mostly higher. Lead prices rose 1.0% to 2,234/t, nickel prices rose 2.7% to 9,726/t, tin prices finished lower by 0.3% to 20,380/t, whilst zinc prices added 1.3% at 2,784/t. Aluminium prices finished 0.1% lower at 1,891/t.
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