He said over the next three days five of the Magnificent Seven tech stocks – Google, Microsoft, Meta (Facebook), Apple and Amazon – will be reporting their latest earnings for the three months ending September.
“They are such a dominant part of the US market which affects New Zealand and after an absolutely spectacular run for the last 18 months to two years, their rally has recently stalled.”
Lister said the US jobs report at the end of the week will be a key economic release for the Federal Reserve when they meet on November 6 and 7 to consider the next interest rate cut.
“And before that, we have the US presidential election that could go either way. The market thinks Trump will win based on the latest currency and interest rate moves, and there will be less of a knee-jerk reaction than back in 2016 if he does get in.”
He said the quarterly New Zealand labour force report next week will be the last piece of the puzzle before the Reserve Bank meets on November 26 to make its call on another cut in the Official Cash Rate. Unemployment is expected to rise from 4.6% to 5%.
Online travel booking company Serko was up 44c or 15.33% to $3.31 after confirming an increase in revenue guidance and expanding in North America. Serko is expecting revenue of $85m-$92m for the 2025 financial year, up from $71.18m in the previous year.
Serko’s first half revenue was up 18% to $42.7m, total spend increased 5% to $44.34m and it recorded a net loss of $5.1m. Completed room nights on Booking.com for Business were 1.6m, up 17% on the previous corresponding period.
Serko has formed a partnership with Texas-based Sabre and will buy its business travel management solution GetThere for US$12m ($20m). The companies will share revenue with Sabre co-selling Serko solutions. Serko has set a new target of $250m revenue for the 2030 financial year.
Lister said New Zealand does not have a lot of high-growth technology stocks and they can do some interesting things if they do it right. The market seemed to like Serko’s announcement.
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare declined 78c or 2.12% to $36.06; Mercury Energy was down 21c or 3.18% to $6.40; ANZ Bank decreased 70c or 1.99% to $34.50.
Tourism Holdings fell 13c or 6.05% to $2.02; Channel Infrastructure shed 8c or 4.28% to $1.79; Sky TV was down 8c or 2.85% to $2.73; and Kiwi Property eased 3c or 3.09% to 94c.
Infratil added 30c or 2.33% to $13.15; a2 Milk was up 12c or 1.89% to $6.48; Auckland International Airport gained 16c or 2.2% to $7.42; Skellerup improved 15c or 3.09% to $5; and Freightways collected 25c or 2.48% to $10.35.
Another tech stock Eroad increased 3c or 3.33% to 93c; Rakon gained 4c or 5.63% to 75c; Comvita rebounded 4c or 3.51% to $1.18; and Being AI rose 9c or 17.31% to 61c.
Third Age Health surged 31c or 16.85% to $2.15 after reporting a 28.2% increase in revenue to $9.4m and 114.9% rise in net profit to $1.15m for the six months ending September. It is paying an interim dividend of 3.55c a share on November 15, and expects an even better second half performance.
Third Age services 87 aged residential care facilities and 5278 patients, up from 677 facilities and 4360 patients at the end of March. In total Third Age provides care to 25,810 patients including community general practices, up from 24,969.
Scott Technology rose 16c or 8.65% to $2.01 after announcing six new contracts totalling $30m for its materials handling and logistics business in Canada, Belgium, France and Netherlands.
Scott’s palletising systems will be used by Belgian frozen food producer EcoFrost and a leading North American food processor for its French and Canadian facilities. Scott also has its first pre-order for the new NexBot automated guided vehicle set to launch by February.
