Evening Wrap: ASX 200 finishes the week slightly lower, energy stocks tank, US futures mixed

The S&P/ASX 200 closed 16 points higher, up 0.23%.

The local sharemarket finished the week down -0.12%, defensive stocks pull the market higher on Friday, Oz Minerals plans to accept BHP's revised takeover offer and a whole lot of stock charts.

Let's dive in.

Markets

The ASX 200 inched higher but finished the week down -0.12%. Its been a rather quiet week where not a whole lot happened at the index level. Things just chopped around as the market awaits the next direction setting catalyst.

• Defensive sectors led to the upside, with Telcos, Industrials and Utilities pulling ahead

• Growth heavy sectors like Tech and Discretionary underperformed, but only slightly

• Energy stocks weighed after oil prices tumbled overnight following another large covid outbreak in China, which may lead to softening demand for oil

• 93 of the top 200 advanced (47%)

Economy

Japan’s inflation hit a 40-year high of 3.7% in October from 3.0% in September. 

• Above analyst expectations of 3.5%

• Economists do not expect the Bank of Japan to begin raising interest rates

• Inflation was further bolstered by the weak yen, which is down more than -20% against the US dollar year-to-date

UK consumer confidence inched higher to -44 in November from -47 in October.

• The index hit an all-time low of -49 in September

• All five of the survey’s gauges of household economic and financial confidence improved in November

Commodities 

"Further hawkish comments from central bankers saw bonds fall and the USD strengthen. This weighed on sentiment across the commodity complex, with most sectors ending the session in the red," said ANZ senior commodity strategist, Daniel Hynes.

• Newcastle coal futures +1.2% to US$320 a tonne

• Iron ore futures +0.35% to US$93.6 a tonne

• Copper flat at US$3.69/lb

Latest news

Post market brief

Another day of nothing much to see here. The ASX 200 finished the week slightly lower as it digests a massive move up. Again, nothing wrong with this quiet price action, it let's those moving averages play catch up. Will be finishing today's wrap with a few sector and stock charts.

S&P/ASX 200: More sideways action at this 7,150 level. Let's see where next week takes us.

XJO chart (Source: TradingView)

Sectors and stocks

Lithium: Has mostly struggled to bounce. Heavyweights Allkem and Pilbara Minerals are slumping to key inflection points where they need show some strength or run the risk of rolling over. The sharp intraday selling on Tuesday has damaged momentum and sentiment. If we use the last Goldman Sachs' inspired selloff on 1 June as a reference point, it took almost 2 months to come back to breakeven. Still, there's always little gems in the lithium space, with names like Argosy Minerals and Global Lithium performing quite well on a relative basis.

Allkem share price chart (Source: TradingView)

Argosy Minerals share price chart (Source: TradingView)

Global Lithium share price chart (Source: TradingView)

Tech: Several tech names like Tyro, Altium and WiseTech continue to trade sideways on a constructive manner, contrary to the way the Nasdaq has been performing.

Tyro share price chart (Source: TradingView)

Healthcare: A few names have come out to play. CSL has had a bit of a V-shaped rebound. Fisher & Paykel breaks out to a 3-month high.

CSL share price chart (Source: TradingView)

Fisher & Paykel share price chart (Source: TradingView)

Major announcements

Large caps (>$1bn)

• Meridian Energy (MEZ) +5.1% said national electricity demand in October was 3.1% higher than the same month last year 

• Oz Minerals (OZL) +4.1% board plans to accept and recommend the revised $28.25 cash takeover bid from BHP, 13% higher than the previous $25.00 offer

• NIB Holdings (NHF) +2.9% AGM noted 4.7% revenue growth to $940.4m for the 4 months to 31 October 

• NextDC (NXT) +2.5% AGM reaffirmed its FY23 guidance of 17-22% revenue growth, 12-17% EBITA growth and $380-420m in capex 

• Nanosonics (NAN) +1.3% AGM reported 42% revenue growth to $52.6m for the first four months to 31 October 

• Rio Tinto (RIO) +0.1% terminated an agreement with two shareholders in Canada’s Turquoise Hill Resources, after receiving backlash and scrutiny from Quebec’s securities regulator 

• Sandfire Resources (SFR) Trading halt plans to raise $200m at $4.30 per share, a 10.2% discount to its last traded price 

• Lovisa (LOV) -7.4% AGM reported 16.1% comparable sales growth for the first 19 weeks of FY23, with total sales up 60% on FY22  

Mid-to-small caps

• Strandline Resources (STA) +6.7% achieved commercial production of Heavy Mineral Concentrate at its Coburn mineral sands project in WA 

• Fonterra Shareholders Fund (FSF) +2.2% plans to divest its Chilean Soprole business, which will result in aggregate consideration of NZ$1.06bn

• Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals (PAR) +0.3% received a $7.4m R&D tax incentive refund from the Australian Government 

• Invictus Energy (IVZ) -6.9% reported ‘encouraging’ early wire results at its Mukuyu-1  well in Zimbabwe  

• Cettire (CTT) -11.6% Founder and CEO has agreed to sell down approximately 41m shares, representing 10.8% of the company’s issued capital 

Broker updates 

Scans