Evening Wrap: ASX 200 flat after a big two days, Woodside rallies on OPEC production cut

The S&P/ASX 200 closed 2 points higher, up 0.03%.

A pretty quiet day for the local sharemarket after a massive run up earlier this week, oil stocks topped the leaderboards after OPEC's historic production cut and Appen issues its third profit downgrade in four months.

Let's dive in.

ASX 200, All Ords and All Tech intraday overview

Markets

The ASX 200 closed pretty much flat without many catalysts to go off. This follows a whack session on Wall Street where the S&P 500 rallied from session lows of -1.8% to closed -0.20%.

Overall, there's not much to see. The ASX 200 had that massive +5.5% two-day rally earlier this week and now its digesting that move/waiting for the next catalyst.

• 5 out of 11 sectors higher

• Energy rallied an outsized 2.2% after OPEC agreed to cut output by 2 million barrels a day, sending oil prices higher

• Staples, Discretionary and Real Estate sectors led to the downside

• 48% of the top 200 declined

Announcements

• Polynovo (ASX: PNV) +23.2% posted September quarter sales of $12.5m, up 73.3% compared to a year ago. This included the company’s first ever $5m sales month

• PointsBet (ASX: PBH) +6.4% said its subsidiary Premier Turf Club entered into an agreement with one of North America’s dominant Thoroughbred horse racing companies for Advanced-deposit Wagering services 

• Lake Resources (ASX: LKE) +2% signed a conditional framework agreement with WMC Energy for an offtake of up to 25,000 tpa of battery grade lithium plus a 10% equity stake in Lake at $1.20 per share

• Boss Energy (ASX: BOE) +0.75% received approval from the South Australian Department of Energy and Mining to progress the restart of its Honeymoon Uranium Project

• De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG) -2.75% successfully raised $130m at $1.00 per share, an 8.3% discount to its last closing price 

• Magellan Financial (ASX: MFG) -8.4% posted an -11.6% month-on-month decline in funds under management to $50.9bn 

• Appen (ASX: APX) -11.7% issued its third profit downgrade since July. Management expect earnings to be in the range of US$13-18m, down 77-84% compared to last year

Notable broker updates 

• Domain Holdings (ASX: DHG): UBS retained a Buy rating but lowered its target price from $4.50 to $4.00

• Magellan Financial (ASX: MFG): Credit Suisse retained a Neutral rating but lowered its price target from $12.50 to $11.40

• REA Group (ASX: REA): UBS retained a Neutral rating and cut its target price from $142.6 to $135.1

Economy

• Australia recorded an $8.3bn trade surplus in August from $8.97bn in July

  • Exports rose $1.4bn driven by coal and briquettes

  • Imports rose $2.1bn driven by fuels and lubricants 

Commodities 

• Iron ore futures +0.5% to US$95.5 a tonne

• Copper +1.96% to US$3.57/lb

  • Up 8.7% in the last eight sessions

• Aluminium +1.55% to US$2.385 a tonne

  • Up 12.3% in the last seven sessions

Latest news

Post market brief

A rather quiet day after some fireworks earlier this week. We've seen a lot of these relief rallies fizzle this year. The ASX 200 held up relatively well on Thursday. It needs to avoid those big distribution days we saw in the last 1-2 months.

US inflation data is due next Thursday, 13 October and that'll probably inspire a big move for global equity markets.

The S&P 500 fell -4.3% after the hotter-than-expected August reading but rallied 2.15% for cooler-than-expected July reading.

Index charts

S&P/ASX 200: Nothing much to see here. Holding above the 50-day moving average. More data is needed.

XJO chart (Source: TradingView)

S&P/ASX 200 Energy: V-shaped rally, further fuelled by OPEC's production cuts. Goldman raised its Q4 oil price forecast by US$10 to US$110 a barrel. Do we see some resistance at September highs or does it just push through?

XEJ chart (Source: TradingView)

S&P/ASX 200 Materials: Getting close to the 200-day and trendline. China is back from its 1-7 October national holiday next week.

XMJ chart (Source: TradingView)

Scans