Hello everyone! Good morning. This is Rachael live from Kalkine Studio. And you’re watching
the Early Trades– a show where we share with you a glimpse of the Australian share market opening
trade scenario, along with the global and domestic drivers triggering the market momentum.
In our first segment of the show today, we’ll look at how early morning trades
panned out taking cues from the Wall Street Action overnight. Then,
we’ll take a look at prominent newsmakers during the early trade hours. And finally,
we’ll discuss the movement seen in crude oil, gold, and metals indices.
Australian shares are expected to rise on Thursday, tracking mildly positive
cues from Wall Street, with soaring energy prices likely benefiting local energy firms.
Investors are also positive as they highly expect US Congress
to reach a deal to avert a government debt default.
The ASX 200 opened the day gaining 0.57 percent after falling 0.6 percent to 7,206.5
points on Wednesday. Nine of eleven sectors have traded lower over the last week. Although
little has changed, consumer staples is today’s best performing sector.
The major ASX-listed companies scheduled to pay latest dividends to their shareholders
include Breville Group, InvoCare, South32, Super Retail Group, and Wesfarmers Ltd.
The top Gainers of the day on ASX during opening trade are COLLINS FOODS,
CLINUVEL PHARMACEUTICALS, JANUS HENDERSON GROUP, ILUKA RESOURCES, and HUB24 LIMITED.
Whereas the bottom performing stocks are BEACH ENERGY, OIL SEARCH,
ALUMINA , DOMINO'S PIZZA, and AUSNET SERVICES.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones was up 0.05 percent,
the S&P 500 was up 0.15 percent, and the NASDAQ ended 0.2 percent higher.
Moving on, let’s look at some major developments in the US market. Soaring energy prices retreated
and stocks on Wall Street rebounded on Wednesday after the top US Senate Republican backed an
extension of the US debt ceiling and Russia calmed volatile natural gas markets in Europe.
The unrelated moves eased growing angst among investors over a possible historic
default on US government debt. US natural gas futures plunged more than 10 percent,
a day after they soared to a 12-year high.
Earlier, a strong private payrolls report helped boost
expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would soon taper its massive bond purchases.
US private payrolls increased by 568,000 jobs in September as COVID-19 infections subsided,
according to the employment report from ADP that pointed to a recovering jobs market.
Moving on to the second segment of the show,
let’s quickly look some prominent ASX shares during the early trades.
The first company on our list today is restaurant group Collins Foods, which has entered into a
deal to run the franchise business of KFC Netherlands. Collins Foods will develop,
manage, and operate the KFC Netherlands. As part of the deal, KFC Netherlands, a subsidiary of New
York-listed Yum Brands, will develop up to 130 new KFC restaurants in the Netherlands over the
next 10 years. The share price of Collins Foods was trading at AU$12.54 during opening trade.
The next company is buy now, pay later player Sezzle, which has entered into a partnership
with US retail player Target ahead of the holiday season. Sezzle first announced the news
on June 3. Another buy now, pay later partner of Target, Affirm, soared 20 per cent on the Nasdaq
following the partnership’s launch. Through the partnership with Affirm and Sezzle,
Target is investing in new financial tools to make shopping experiences more flexible
and personalized. The share price of Sezzle was trading at AU$5.19 during opening trade.
The next company on our list is Qube. The Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission has announced that it will investigate Qube’s $90 million
acquisition of the Newcastle Agri Terminal. Qube was requested by the ACCC to delay the
transaction after competition concerns were raised by market participants.
Following the acquisition, Qube is alleged to engage in anti-competitive business practices.
The share price of Qube was trading at AU$3.28 during opening trade.
We’ve reached to the third and final segment of the show – let’s now discuss the movement seen
in bond yields, crude oil, gold, and metals indices.
Looking at the Bond yields, the yields on the US Treasury 10-year benchmark fell from more than
three-month peaks. The 10-year note's yield fell 0.7 basis points to 1.5241 percent.
In the currency space, the dollar rose toward a one-year high touched last week as inflation
concerns fueled by surging energy prices and the outlook for rising rates knocked
investors' appetite for riskier assets. The dollar index rose 0.228 percent while
The euro was down 0.34 percent and the Yen traded down 0.04 percent.
Moving on to oil space, prices of Crude oil fell following news reports that US stockpiles
have increased. Oil prices slipped nearly 2 percent after hitting multi-year highs.
Brent crude futures fell 1.79 percent to settle at US$81.08 a barrel.
US crude settled down 1.90 percent to US$77.43 a barrel.
Energy stocks such as Woodside Petroleum was trading lower during early
trade whereas Santos edged lower during early trade on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Gold prices edged higher following a silent retreat in US bond
yields, boosting the safe haven asset. US gold futures settled up 0.1 percent.
ASX-listed gold stocks such as such as Northern Star Resources was seen in the green during
early trade while Newcrest Mining was also trading lower during opening trade on Thursday.
Well, that’s all for now on the early morning trades! This is Rachael signing
off! Stay tuned to Kalkine TV as we have many more shows lined up for you for sharing live
updates across the economy, markets and sectors.