End of Day Report – Friday 1 November: Good afternoon rally | Iron ore positive

ASX 200 down only 41 points at 8119 (-0.5%) after a good afternoon rally on iron ore miners turning positive. Some slightly better Chinese data helping. BHP up 0.3% and RIO bouncing 1.7%. MIN also doing well up another 3.1%. Gold miners still a drift as bullion stumbles. NST down 0.9% and EVN off 2.1%. Uranium stocks steady and oil and gas better as crude rallies in Asian trade. WDS up 1.1% and STO up 0.7%. Banks were hit as MQG warned of increased competition after results underwhelmed. MQG off 3.6% and NAB falling 1.5% with the Big Bank Basket at $243.47 (-0.6%). Insurers slid and REITs also in the red, SCG off 1.4%. Industrials generally eased back, WES down 1.0% and XRO falling 0.9% with retail seeing some profit taking, JBH off 0.2% and PMV down 1.8%. In corporate news, AMC fell 4.3% despite reaffirming outlook and raising dividend. The probe into ANZ by ASIC has been expanded. On the economic front, economists are winding back hopes for a rate cut in early 2025. MQG reported a $1,6bn interim profit below expectations, talks a second-half bump and lifted its dividend to 240c. On the economic front, nothing locally, In China we had some better news on the Caixin PMI. Asian markets mixed again, with Japan off 1.7%, HK up 1.6% and China up 0.6%. 10Y yields pushing higher again, 4.55%. Dow Futures up 40 points. NASDAQ Futures up 57 points. 

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