The ASX was down in morning trading.
The S&P/ASX200 had dropped 25.80 points or 0.35% to 7,370.70 at time of writing.
This index has lost 1.33% for the last five days, but sits 3.43% below its 52-week high.
Bottom-performing stocks were Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd down 5.22% and Beach Energy Ltd down 3.82%.
The CBA was down 1.9%, whilst Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield dropped 3.9%. Woodside and Northern Star were also down more than 2%.
Corporate Travel Management decreased by 3% as global pandemic events hit our own travel sector.
The energy and finance indices were down more than 1%.
On the flipside, AMP was 3.5% higher on the retention of its prized $7 billion office fund and Redbubble was up 4%.
Mesoblast was 2% higher on refinancing an existing senior debt facility with a new $US90 million five-year facility.
International borders to open
Flight Centre may be down, but Australian travel stocks could be boosted on news that fully vaccinated international students and skilled migrants are now being welcomed back into the country.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared December 1 as the day the doors will be thrown open.
“The return of skilled workers and students to Australia is a major milestone in our pathway back, it's a major milestone about what Australians have been able to achieve and enable us to do,” Morrison told reporters on Monday morning.
“It'll mean a lot for the economies of our country right around the country, who need those workers and want to see those students return.”
Qantas was quick to jump on the news.
The Flying Kangaroo will start its international services between Melbourne and Delhi from December. The airline will fly its Airbus A330 aircraft non-stop to Delhi four times a week while the Sydney to Delhi route announced recently will also begin next month.
Qantas reported the Sydney-Delhi route saw the fastest booking surge for flights leaving Australia since the airline announced its international restart plans in August.
“We are starting to see more and more Victorians booking a much-deserved international getaway and as borders open up to international visitors we’re expecting to see them visit Melbourne in large numbers, which will give local tourism and hospitality businesses a boost," Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said.
International flights resumed from Melbourne this morning, with the first flight to Singapore in nearly 20 months.
Flights to London will resume from November 27 and Los Angeles from December 19.
Has Andrew Forrest overstepped his mark?
Mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest has been accused of overstepping his bounds by National Party deputy leader David Littleproud.
Littleproud called Forrest out after the billionaire lobbied PM Scott Morrison to funnel diesel subsidies into green energy.
As reported by The Australian, Forrest wants to see the multi-billion-dollar diesel fuel subsidy phased out to support the development of a green energy industry.
“He (Dr Forrest) is respected and listened to but that doesn't mean that he dictates government policy and never will. We obviously have to look at this from a broader perspective, a broader economic perspective of maintaining the jobs,” Littleproud told Sky News on Monday morning.
“He's giving plenty of gratuitous advice and I think it's more about allaying the fears of these institutional investors for all the checks has been cashing around hydrogen.
Higher house prices expected
With the banks now raising fixed interest rates, analysts are expecting house prices to decrease 10% by 2023.
CBA Economics predicts Australian dwelling price growth to moderate following higher rates, affordability issues and fatigue due to high price gains.
"The phenomenal lift in prices is not over yet given dwelling prices are still rising briskly in most capital cities. But near-term indicators of momentum coupled with the recent move higher in fixed rate mortgages suggest that conditions will moderate from here," the CBA report stated.
"A further tightening in macro‑prudential policy looks unlikely in our view given higher fixed mortgage rates will deliver APRA the desired cooling in the market.
"Our expectation for the RBA to commence normalising the cash rate in November 2022 means that we expect national dwelling prices to peak in late 2022 around 7% higher than end‑2021 levels."
The CBA expects the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise the cash rate to 1.25% by the third quarter of 2023.
On the small cap front
Emyria Ltd (ASX:EMD) is up 15.38%. EMD has an extra $5 million in the bank after a successful share placement to strategic investor Tattarang – one of Australia’s largest private investment groups that is owned by the Forrest family.
Nova Minerals Ltd (ASX:NVA, OTCQB:NVAAF) is up 9.68%. NVA’s 57.52% owned Snow Lake Resources has priced its initial public offering (IPO) and will begin trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker LITM.
Brookside Energy Ltd (ASX:BRK) is up 4.76%. BRK is one step closer to drilling the high-impact Rangers Well in Oklahoma’s world-class Anadarko oil and gas basin.
Clean Teq Water Ltd is up 4.55%. CNQ has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with the National Energy Services Reunited Corp to promote the company’s unique water treatment and reuse solutions to oil and gas companies in the Middle East.
Stellar Resources is up 4.17%. SRZ intersected high-grade silver-lead mineralisation from its phase one drilling program at the Montana No.1 mine near Zeehan in Tasmania.
Chimeric Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:CHM) is up 3.45%. CHM has presented "very promising" results of its Phase 1 clinical trial of its chlorotoxin-directed (CLTX) CAR T cell cancer treatment.
Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:PAR) is up 1.86%. Founder and chief executive officer Paul Rennie is transitioning from his current role as chief executive officer and managing director to non-executive chairman with immediate effect.
Aeris Resources Ltd (ASX:AIS) is up 1.25%. AIS has entered into unsecured Australian dollar gold hedges with ANZ for 21,000 ounces at a forward price of A$2,538.54 per ounce.