Marcus Today End of Day Podcast – Thursday 13th April

ASX 200 fell 20 points to finish at 7324 (-0.3%), letting go of some of yesterday’s gains. Energy sector leading the gainers today, WDS +1.1%, STX +5.3%, and COE +6.5%. Banks are down, WBC down 0.1% after getting upgraded to neutral from underperform at Macquarie, The Big Bank Basket falling to $172.21 (-0.9%) CBA falling 1.0%. Tech doing ok, with WTC up 1.5% and CPU up 1.4%. The All-Tech Index up 0.4%. Healthcare stocks were mostly down, CSL down 0.6% and RMD off 0.3%. REITS firmed GMG up 1.4% and URW up 1.0%. Bad day for miners BHP, RIO, and FMG all off 0.9%, 0.7%, and 1.8%, respectively as Cyclone Ilsa heads for WA. Gold miners finish in positive territory, NST up 0.7%, PRU up 1.2% and DEG firm 2.2%. Industrials lagging beyond again, TCL down 0.2% and QAN down 0.6% while DOW gained 2.6%. On the corporate front, Corporate Travel Management (CTD) surged +12.1% after being awarded a 2-year contract by UK Home Office worth £1.6B, Wesfarmers (WES) -0.7% offloads 37.2m shares in Coles (COL), OZ Minerals (OZL) +0.1% declares fully franked dividend of 175c per share. In economic news, Australian jobs data comes in hotter-than expected, holding near 50-year lows at 3.5% against forecasts of 3.6%. Labour market remains tight. Australian housing demand seen strengthening even further amid the migration surge, NAB’s April housing update attributed the recent rise in home values to low supply and extremely tight rental conditions, and additional demand form overseas migration. In Asian trade, Japan up 0.1%, HK down 0.7% and China down 0.3%. Dow futures up 9 points. NASDAQ futures up 21 points.

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