ASX recap: All the latest news from company reporting season on the Australian market
Australia’s share market has ended the first week of reporting season with a record close.
This week brought big names forward to report their financials including JB Hi-Fi, SGH, Seven West Media (publisher of this esteemed website), Commonwealth Bank, Evolution Mining, Treasury Wine Estates, Telstra.
Cochlear, Mirvac and Baby Bunting were up on Friday, with the latter reporting record sales for the 12 months to June.
And from AAP, the local bourse has ended the week on its highest ever note, locking in a record close after hitting new intraday peaks for five straight sessions.
The S&P/ASX200 shrugged off a midday wobble to charge higher by 61.8 points, or 0.7 per cent, to a best-ever close of 8,935.6.
Eight of 11 local sectors finished higher, led by a 1.1 per cent afternoon rally in financials and strong performances from the mining and energy sectors.
The Aussie dollar was weaker against the greenback to buy 65.04 US cents, down from 65.37 US cents on Thursday at 5pm.
Key Events
Market tops 8900 as record run continues
The Aussie share market has cointinued its run of record highs, topping 8900 points for the first time in the morning session.
The S&P/ASX200 was sitting at 8909.7 at 1.30pm AEST, up 36.3 points from yesterday’s close.
IG Markets analyst Tony Sycamore said it was a feat “unprecedented over the past decade”.
“This week’s gains have followed a rally on Wall Street, the Reserve Bank’s recent 25-basis-point rate cut to 3.6 per cent, and July’s in-line labour force report, reinforcing the RBA’s cautious 2025 rate cut strategy and teasing further cuts ahead, most likely in November and February,” he said.
Friday’s relatively steady start came after a flat US session overnight, after producer price growth in the world’s largest economy weighed on expectations of the timing and magnitude of future interest rate cuts.
“Today we expect the local market to be mostly flat, as traders await earnings calls,” Moomoo market strategist Paco Chow said.
“We’ve got a long way to go in Australian earnings season, but despite some misses, we’re seeing good news.”
Westpac was one such example, leading the big four banks for a second-straight day after it posted a solid boost in quarterly profit on Wednesday and helping financials edge 0.1 per cent higher.
CBA was on track for a third session of losses, down 7.5 per cent to $165.60 since its full-year results raised questions about its lofty valuation.
Local gold miners edged higher thanks to an uptick in the greenback against the Aussie dollar, as futures in the precious metal edged 0.5 per cent lower to $US3383 ($5205) an ounce.
While you were sleeping ...
Here’s what happened on US markets overnight.
Wall Street’s main indexes are mixed, with S&P 500 edging up to a closing high while the Dow Jones and Nasdaq were flat after a hotter-than-expected producer prices report dampened expectations of potential interest-rate cuts.
A Labor Department report showed producer prices increased the most in three years in July due to a surge in the costs of goods and services, suggesting a broad pickup in inflation was imminent.
Traders trimmed their Fed rate-cut expectations for the rest of the year to about 56.7 basis points, according to data compiled by LSEG, compared with around 63 bps before the report.
But they are still fully pricing in a quarter-percentage-point cut in September.
“The implication is that the Fed is going to offer a 25-(basis point) cut in September. But it will be a hawkish cut. It’s way too early still for the Fed to wish to guide the market towards an extended easing cycle,” said Thierry Wizman, global FX and rates strategist at Macquarie Group.
“The next important thing will be the Expenditures Price Index later this month. If there are signals that there’s inflation broadly in services, the market will take that adversely.”
A separate report on Thursday showed the number of people in the US filing new applications for jobless benefits fell last week.
Read the full market wrap-up here.
Originally published on The West Australian
