Global aerospace and defence company Northrop Grumman rose overnight, leading outperformers on the S&P 500. Photo / Getty
Keeping you up to date with the latest market moves, in association with Investment firm Jarden
International
US
The major US indices were up at the time of writing. The S&P 500 was up 0.6 per cent, the Nasdaq inclined 0.5 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average improved 0.4 per cent.
Sectors were mostly in the green, with only one seeing losses. The top gainers were utilities (+1.6 per cent), technology (+0.9 per cent) and health (+0.8 per cent). The underperformer was energy (-1.6 per cent).
The outperformers of the S&P 500 were led by global aerospace and defence company Northrop Grumman, rising 4.2 per cent.
Pool Corp was up 3.8 per cent, and L3Harris Technologies gained 3.5 per cent.
With concern over cruise ship demand in the second half, cruise companies led the bottom movers.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean Cruises fell 8.7 and 6.1 per cent respectively.
Norwegian also announced changes to Covid-19 restrictions, allowing customers to join a cruise without requiring a Covid-19 test, unless required by local regulations.
Leisure travel company Carnival Corp also declined 5.5 per cent.
News revealed Amazon would offer subscribers a one-year membership to Grubhub as part of an agreement allowing the company to take a 2.0 per cent stake in the food delivery company. Following this news, Uber was down 4.2 per cent and DoorDash declined 8.8 per cent.
As the energy sector continued its decline, those stocks continued to slide. Marathon Oil, ConocoPhillips and Halliburton were down 2.8, 2.5 and 2.3 per cent respectively, at the time of writing.
The US Bureau of Labour Statistics reported, as part of the Job Openings and Labour Turnover Summary, that on the last business day of May the number of job openings in the US decreased to 11.3 million.
Hires and total separations were mostly unchanged, with 6.5 million and 6.0 million respectively.
Rest of the World
Covid-19 concerns that are resurfacing in China hit the markets on Wednesday, as new waves of testing may have prompted concerns of further lockdowns.
Asian markets closed in the red overnight. The Shanghai Composite fell 1.4 per cent, while the Nikkei and the Hang Seng lost 1.2 per cent each.
European markets closed with gains despite the Euro falling to a new two-decade low due to growing energy prices and possible shortages. The FTSE gained 1.2 per cent, the DAX rose 1.6 per cent and the CAC increased 2.0 per cent.
Commodities
Gold traded 1.7 per cent lower to US$1,733.1 per ounce.
WTI Crude Oil fell 1.2 per cent to US$98.33 per barrel, remaining under US$100.
Bitcoin was down 0.1 per cent and Ethereum was up 0.7 per cent.
The US 10-Year Treasury rate gained 10 basis points to 2.917 per cent, alongside a nine-point incline in the 30-year rate, up to 3.122 per cent.
The 2-Year US Treasury yield has become higher than the 10-Year yield, meaning the yield curve between the two has inverted.
This inversion, if sustained, has historically been considered as an indicator that the economy could potentially be directed towards a recession. However, if this were to eventuate, many analysts would only expect a mild recession.
New Zealand
The NZX 50 continues its week in the green with a 1.6 per cent increase. In the index, 45 out of the 50 companies increased or remained unchanged.
Eroad leads the index for the second day in a row with a 14.3 per cent jump in its share price, representing a 25 per cent increase from the start of the week. It is a strong bounce back from last week where it reached its all-time low.
Travel management and expense technology company Serko also closed in the green, up 5.6 per cent. Even with this bounce, the share price is still more than 40 per cent down year to date.
Freightways rounds out the top three performers, rising 4.1 per cent.
Out of the five companies in the red, SkyCity Entertainment experienced the biggest losses, down 2.1 per cent. The company remains over 25 per cent below its pre-Covid share price.
Agricultural and industrial manufacturer Skellerup also closed down, with a 1.7 per cent drop.
Restaurant Brands declined 1.2 per cent yesterday, which brought it down 22.3 per cent for the year.
The BNZ/Seek Employment Report recorded a 2.7 per cent decrease in job advertisements during June. However, this is still more than 9.0 per cent up year on year. The report also showed that applications per job advertisement were up 5.0 per cent.
Stride Property Group increased 1.2 per cent after holding its annual shareholders' meeting.
Australia
The ASX 200 closed 0.5 per cent lower at 6,594.50 points.
Eight of the 11 sectors outperformed. Australian real estate investment trusts led sector gains with a 3.2 per cent rise, followed by information technology (+3.1 per cent) and health care (+2.0 per cent).
The energy sector slumped 5.8 per cent and materials fell 5.0 per cent. Utilities (-1.2 per cent) sector also closed in the red.
Technology companies featured among the top performing single stocks. Network as a Service (NaaS) provider Megaport improved 14.0 per cent.
Software developer Life360 gained 13.9 per cent. Financial technology firm Zip Co closed 12.8 per cent higher.
On the flip side, gold producer St Barbara dropped 9.5 per cent. Iron ore firm Champion Iron slid 8.7 per cent.
Copper miner Sandfire Resources fell 8.4 per cent as copper prices sunk to their lowest level in 19 months. Recessionary expectations dampened demand for the widely used metal, which is often viewed as a bellwether for the global economy.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates revealed that the country's canola growers produced over 2 million tonnes of canola in the 2019-2020 financial year.
The ABS report highlighted the dominance of the Western Australian Esperance region, which produced 267,000 tonnes of canola.
This was more than double the production of the next most-producing region, South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, which turned out 120,000 tonnes.
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The local market was directionless as it snapped its positive start to the week.