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Market Opener – 14 May 2018

 
Local Markets Commentary
The Australian market commences a new week’s trade following largely lacklustre overnight Friday international equities trade leads, amid a swag of domestic large-cap corporate updates..

In mixed overnight Friday commodities trade, oil swung lower. 

US gold futures settled modestly lower.

Iron ore (China port, 62% Fe) rose for a second consecutive session.

LME copper continued higher. Nickel turned and rallied. Aluminium fell further.The $A remained within a narrow-range after trading at US75.50c early Friday evening.

Locally today, a weekly capital city residential property price report is due pre-trade.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) publishes card and ATM transaction statistics 11.30am AEST.

Regionally, post-ASX trade Friday, China reported April new lending had risen to 1.18 trillion yuan (~$US186B), from 1.12 trillion yuan in March, and against forecasts of 1.1 trillion.

China is expected to report April industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales tomorrow.

Overseas Market Commentary
Choppy trade featured across major European and US equities markets overnight Friday.

FTSE 100 trade appeared the most decisive, this index trending markedly higher in second-half trade. 

Among scant data releases, a University of Michigan initial May US consumer sentiment estimate remained on par with the final April reading, at 98.8, following expectations of a fall. 

Tonight, no key economic indicators are due in the northern hemisphere. 

In overnight Friday corporate news, US cyber security specialist Symantec revealed it was investigating matters that could lead to an adjustment to disappointing forecasts and that would delay the release of the company’s annual report. The stock was subsequently pushed 33% lower.

Chip manufacturer Nvidia fell 2% on uncertain future earnings capacity.

In the meantime, London-headquartered property websites owner ZPG attracted a £2.2B offer from US private equity firm Silver Lake Management, this propelling ZPG 30% higher.

The UK online classifieds sector appeared to benefit in general, ZPG competitor Rightmove pushed more than 3.5% higher, but Auto Trader also gaining ~2.5%.

Post-US trade, the US president announced he had spoken with China’s president, and that the US would assist China’s ZTE to resume normal operations, after the mobile telephone manufacturer announced last week that a US-ordered ban on US companies supplying component parts had forced a shutdown of regular business.

In addition, over the weekend, China Three Gorges was reported to be bidding €9B to acquire the balance 76.7% of Portugal utility EDP that it has not hold.
 
14/05/2018 8:00:00 AM

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