Morning Wrap: ASX 200 to extend six-day losing streak at open, Morgan Stanley upgrade three ASX miners, Goldman Sachs downgrades Megaport

ASX 200 futures trading up 6 points, or (+0.07%), to 8,203, as of 8:30AM

The ASX 200 is on a six-day losing streak and it could become seven if the futures direction holds up today. Watch the iron ore miners after iron ore prices fell by 1% this weekend after Beijing left a lot of key questions around the size of its intended stimulus package unanswered. Locally, there's a boat load of pre-Christmas broker moves to get you across. We'll share those later in the Wrap. We'll also be watching DigiCo Infrastructure REIT which had a soggy debut on Friday the 13th. Will the market's biggest IPO in more than six years receive a better reaction today? Let's find out.

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S&P 500 SESSION CHART

The S&P 500 experienced a sharp fall in the first hour of trading and couldn't recover thereafter. (Source: TradingView)

OVERNIGHT MARKETS

• US equities finished narrowly mixed in quiet Friday trading.

• S&P 500 ended lower for the week after three consecutive weekly gains; Nasdaq was up for the fourth straight week with help from tech.

• US Treasuries were weaker across the curve.

• US Dollar index was flat; euro was stronger on French PM announcement and yen was weaker on increasingly expected BoJ hold next week.

• Gold finished down 1.2%.

• Bitcoin futures were up 1.7%.

• WTI crude settled up 1.8%.

STOCKS

• Apple planning major design and format changes, including thinner, foldable iPhones that will be cheaper than Pro models (WSJ)

• MicroStrategy, Palantir and Axon to join Nasdaq 100 (Bloomberg)

• Slower to deal with declining commercial property values, small banks ramp up use of CRE loan modifications (Bloomberg)

• Global auto industry under meaningful; pressure from technological shifts, political uncertainty and competition from China (NY Times)

ASIA

• South Korea's finance ministry pledges to continue implementing market stabilizing measures to support economy following impeachment of president (Reuters)

• China regulators say they will step up efforts to stabilize housing and equity markets and implement more effective fiscal policies (Bloomberg)

• PBOC official says central bank will cut interest rates and RRR in a timely manner in 2025 (Bloomberg)

EUROPE

• Moody's downgrades France's credit rating from Aa2 to Aa3, citing political instability that will make it harder to deal with national debt (Reuters)

• ECB Governing Council member Kazaks says central banks should cut rates further, but not take them to levels that would drive economic expansion (Bloomberg)

• Germany's CDU plans to campaign for February's snap election with platform of tax cuts and tougher crackdown on illegal immigration (FT)

TRUMP 2.0

• Corporate executives, particularly from tech, reaching out and meeting with Trump (NY Times, WSJ)

• Despite behind-the-scenes lobbying from business executives worried about economic impact, Trump not budging on plans to implement tariffs (WSJ)

• Tariff worries drive consumer stockpiling, potentially pushing inflation higher (WSJ)

• Trump has recently expressed interest in privatising the US Postal Service (Washington Post)

• Trump's replacements at FTC and DoJ suggest M&A policy will have both populist and deregulatory influences (FT)

• Trump transition team wants incoming administration to scrap vehicle-crash reporting requirements opposed by Tesla (Reuters)

BROKER MOVES

• Goldman Sachs initiates Aussie Broadband (ASX: ABB) at NEUTRAL with $3.80 price target

• Goldman Sachs initiates Superloop (ASX: SLC) at SELL with $2.10 price target

• Goldman Sachs downgrades Megaport (ASX: MP1) to NEUTRAL from buy. Price target is now $8 (cut from $10.40)

• Morgans upgrades Iress (ASX: IRE) to ADD from hold, price target of $10.78 (cut from $11.20)

• Wilsons upgrades Iress (ASX: IRE) to OVERWEIGHT from market weight, price target of $11

• Morgan Stanley upgrades Northern Star (ASX: NST) to EQUAL WEIGHT from underweight with price target of $15.60

• Morgan Stanley upgrades Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) to OVERWEIGHT from equal weight, price target reduced to $2.55 from $3

• Morgan Stanley upgrades South32 (ASX: S32) to OVERWEIGHT from equal weight, price target increased to $3.90 from $3.30

• Morgan Stanley downgrades Sandfire Resources (ASX: SFR) to UNDERWEIGHT from equal weight, price target increased to $9 from $8

• Bell Potter initiates Bellevue Gold (ASX: BGL) at BUY, with price target of $1.95

Stocks trading ex-dividend: 

• Mon 16 Dec: Plato Income Maximiser (PL8) - 0.45%

• Tue 17 Dec: Elders (ELD) - 2.37%

Economic calendar (AEDT):

• Tonight: European PMIs

• 7:35pm: ECB President Lagarde speaks

• Overnight: US PMIs