Morning Market Report

The market is up 13 points. The Dow Jones finished up 13 – it was up 18 at best and down 87 at worst. Now 15556. The S&P 500 closed up 4.

Facebook up 29.61% on its results. Housebuilders fell hard with majors DR Horton down 8.50% and PulteGroup down 10.30% on results.

Second quarter UK GDP update was up 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in line with expectations. Durable goods numbers +4.2% ahead of the +1.8% expected but it was all down to aircraft orders (up 29.2%) with almost every other segment seeing a decline. The German Ifo Business Climate number was in line with expectations at 106.2. Spanish unemployment fell to 226.3% from 27.2%. 

US dollar down for the fourth day on the trot. Weekly jobless numbers pretty much in line with expectations.

Resources mixed with BHP up 0.79% and RIO down 0.11% in the US with BHP closing at the equivalent of 24c down on last night’s close in Australia. The A$ has rallied to 92.37c. It hit 93.19c at its high this week but fell back on the weak Chinese PMI number and the lower than expected CPI number. 

The Chinese market was down 0.6% yesterday with Japan down 1.14%. Japanese CPI is due out today. Rudd said overnight that China was experiencing “somewhat of a credit crunch”. 

Metals mostly down. The weekly uranium price is down another $1.75 to $36.50/lb. Oil price up 10c to $105.49. Gold price up $9.30 to $1328. The gold price has been up 14.33% from its low of $1179 on June 28 to the recent peak at $1348.70. Spot iron ore was unchanged at $132.10.

US Results

  • Applied Micro up 13.95%
  • E*Trade up 7.86%
  • Facebook up 29.61%
  • Qualcomm up 3.31%
  • Visa up 4.21%
  • 3M up 0.19%
  • Bristol-Myers down 1.48%
  • Coca-Cola down 0.05%
  • Colgate-Palmolive up 1.97%
  • Dow Chemical up 1.80%
  • DR Horton down 8.58%
  • General Motors down 0.16%
  • Harley-Davidson down 0.21%
  • Noble Energy down 0.25%
  • PulteGroup down 10.30%
  • Amazon.com down 2.77% after hours
  • Starbucks up 5.93% after hours
  • Wynn Resorts down 0.74%

ANNOUNCEMENTS & STORIES

  • Macmillan Shakespeare (MMS) — Opened at 675c yesterday and it closed at 880c. It is now a punt on a Coalition election win — in a statement MMS say the “impact will be dependent on the outcome of the pending Federal Election and whether the proposed legislative changes will be passed as law following the election”. 
  • Macquarie Group (MQG 4465c) — Shares closed down 2.34% yesterday and are down again today after the company held its AGM and on some research this morning from JP Morgan, which has put an underweight recommendation on the stock with a 4018c target price some 10% below the current share price.
  • Newcrest (NCM) — Sell recommendations around on the stock this morning with 900c target prices, 28% below the share price.
  • Japanese CPI is out this morning at +0.4% year-on-year versus the median estimate of +0.3%. Inflation is good news in Japan at the moment.
  • Rio Tinto (RIO) and BHP Billiton (BHP) — Will spend a combined $3.26 billion to build a new seawater desalination plant at the Escondida mine in Chile. RIO will spend $1.13 billion and has a as a 30% share in the mine. Construction will start this month with commissioning scheduled for 2017.
  • Sigma Pharmaceuticals (SIP) — Down 4.7% after issuing a profit warning.
  • PanAust (PNA) — Up 5% after its June quarter numbers. It has reiterated 2013 output guidance of 62,000-65,000 tonnes of copper.