The futures index was down 32 points due to the proliferation of buyers over sellers active on foreign bourses yesterday.
As such it is likely the ASX will open lower this morning.
Wall St finished flat with inflation fears holding it back and retail sales data and earnings due to be reported this week, including those from Target and Walmart.
Data should inform consumer spend over the holiday season.
“Investors are waiting for retail sales,” Cresset Capital chief investment officer Jack Ablin said.
Albin said the market was in a “wait and see” pattern.
Here’s what we saw:
- The Aussie dollar rose from lows near US73.40 cents to highs near US73.70 cents and was near US73.45 cents in afternoon US trade.
- Global oil prices were mixed on Monday. Commsec tells us, “Prices were restrained by expectations of higher supply. An indicator of future supply - the oil & gas rig count in the US - rose to the highest levels since April 2020. Rising COVID-19 cases across the globe could also lead to mobility restrictions, weighing on energy demand.”
- The Brent crude price fell by US12 cents or 0.1% to US$82.05 a barrel.
- The US Nymex crude price rose by US9 cents or 0.1% to US$80.88 a barrel.
- Base metal prices fell by between 0.7-1.8% on Monday with tin down the least and nickel down the most.
- The gold futures price fell by US$1.90 or 0.1% to US$1,866.60 an ounce.
- Spot gold was trading near US$1,866 an ounce at the US close.
- Iron ore fell by US60 cents or 0.7% to US$89.15 a tonne.
Australian markets
The S&P/ASX 200 Index firmed 0.4% on Monday, led by Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) which was up 11.8% on positive results for a key therapy treating heart failure.
In a release by the American Heart Association, the trial’s co-principal investigator Dr Emerson Perin, medical director of Texas Heart Institute said: “Cell therapy has the potential to change how we treat heart failure. This study addresses the inflammatory aspects of heart failure, which go mostly untreated, despite significant pharmaceutical and device therapy development.”
Futures today, however, point to a slow start and there’s very little going on the news front this morning.
Perhaps that is because the US is making the headlines at the moment.
Australian indices
- ASX 200 rose 0.36% to 7,470.10.
- ASX24 futures fell 0.5% to 7,433.
- S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries rose 0.5% to 3,585.50.
- All Ordinaries rose 0.42% to 7,798.20.
US markets
Banks were flat and the materials sector lost 0.5%, pushing Wall St lower.
Shares in Boeing rose 5.5% after Emirates announced an order for two 777 Freighters.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock was down yesterday after Elon Musk hinted he may sell down more stock. Last week, the Tesla CEO sold down US$5 billion of stock.
Tesla's stock ended nearly 2% lower at $1,013.39, causing its market capitalisation to fall about $207 billion since Musk began selling shares.
Musk is now in a dispute with Bernie Sanders after the former presidential candidate and US senator demanded the rich pay more taxes.
"Tesla shares have been sinking post the sale based on a Twitter poll last week. And Musk's Sunday tweet deriding a senior politician may add pressure on the stock in the coming weeks," said Kunal Sawhney, CEO of equity research firm Kalkine Group.
"By offloading shares worth billions of dollars, Elon Musk is likely to accrue a tax bill of around $15 billion."
On Saturday, 80-year-old Sanders wrote in a tweet, “We must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share. Period.”
Musk replied, “I keep forgetting that you’re still alive.”
And followed up with, “Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word.” Then, the CEO berated the senator saying, “Bernie is a taker, not a maker.”
According to Joseph Palmer & Sons director Alex Moffatt, “Tesla is still way over-valued on a trailing price to earnings ratio of some 330 times and with a market capitalisation of a snip over a trillion dollars it compares unfavourably with another manufacturer going down the electric vehicle road.
“BMW has a price to earnings ratio of five times and a market capitalisation of EUR70 billion. A quick back of the envelope calculation puts Tesla’s market capitalisation greater than the combined market capitalisation of the nine largest car manufacturers around the world.”
Infrastructure bill signed
Meanwhile, the man who beat Sanders to the presidency, Joe Biden, has signed to law a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The bill delivers long-awaited spending on roads, bridges, broadband, electric-vehicle chargers, ports and other areas.
“Here in Washington, we’ve heard countless speeches and promises and white papers from experts. But today, we’re finally getting this done,” Biden said in a speech, shortly before putting his signature on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
“So my message to the American people is this: America’s moving again, and your life is going to change for the better.”
This is an approximately $1 trillion bill, with circa $550 billion to be spent on new public works: $110 billion for roads, bridges and major projects; $66 billion for passenger and freight rail; $65 billion for broadband; and $7.5 billion for charging stations for electric vehicles.
Biden is now setting his sights on the Democrat party’s $1.75 trillion social-spending and climate package, known as the Build Back Better plan.
US indices
- Dow Jones was flat at 36,087.45.
- S&P 500 was flat at 4,682.8.
- Nasdaq was flat at 15,853.85.
European markets
Europe was firmer yesterday.
Sentiment was supported by European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde who said that the inflation spike would last longer than originally thought, but would fade.
The basic resources index eased 1.1%. The pan[1]European STOXX 600 rose again to record highs. The German Dax index also rose to record highs.
In London trade shares in Rio Tinto fell by 1.1% and BHP shares fell by 1.9%.
The major news coming out of Europe is that energy giant Shell will switch headquarters from the Netherlands to the UK and drop Royal Dutch from its name.
The move has angered the Dutch government, but has been hailed by UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng as “a clear vote of confidence in the British economy”.
Shell will switch its tax residence and top executives to Britain.
The Netherlands loses its biggest company after 130 years.
“We are unpleasantly surprised by this. The cabinet deeply regrets this intention,” Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Stef Blok said on Twitter.
Shell’s departure tax could be as high as 400 million euros, not as large as the tax hit for the Dutch treasury which could amount to billions of Euros.
The Dutch government is examining if it has support to scrap the dividend tax in a bid to persuade Shell to stay, broadcaster RTL reported.
It is a double blow for the Dutch after consumer goods giant Unilever became a wholly British company last year, reversing a plan to base itself in the Netherlands.
European indices
- STOXX 600 rose 0.35% to 488.43.
- German Dax rose 0.3% to 16,148.64.
- UK FTSE rose 0.1% to 7,351.86.