Morning Wrap: ASX 200 to rise, Fed Chair Powell sees no rush to cut rates, Healius and Sandfire Resources to hold AGMs

ASX 200 futures are trading 26 points or 0.3% lower to 8,296, as of 8:15am AEDT.

Firstly, my personal apologies that this Wrap is late. Secondly, it was a profit taking session on Wall Street with all the major indices recording losses overnight. Today, all eyes are five key AGMs and the popular Sohn Hearts and Minds Conference being held in Adelaide. Plus, we'll get you a taster from Goldman Sachs' latest iron ore prediction.

Let's dive in.

S&P 500 SESSION CHART

It was mostly one-way traffic for the S&P 500 last night. (Source: TradingView)

OVERNIGHT MARKETS

• US equities finished lower in Thursday trading, ending near worst levels

• Treasuries were mixed. The short end of the yield curve sold off slightly following Fed Chair Jerome Powell's newest comments.

  • “The economy is not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates ... The strength we are currently seeing in the economy gives us the ability to approach our decisions carefully.”

• US Dollar index was up 0.4%, Bitcoin futures were down 2.2% after seven straight days of gains.

• WTI crude settled up 0.4%, Gold is at US$2,570 per ounce

STOCKS

• US regulators have taken steps to put Google under formal federal supervision (Reuters)

• Federal Trade Commission to investigate Microsoft's anticompetitive practices in cloud computing (FT)

• Amazon announces it will launch telehealth service business which will include hair loss drugs (Bloomberg)

• Meta fined €798 million by EU regulators for stifling competition in classified ads (FT)

• Exxon Mobil will cut nearly 400 jobs in Texas following its purchase of shale producer Pioneer (Reuters)

POLITICS & GEOPOLITICS

• Trump's transition team is planning to scrap Biden's EV tax credit (Reuters)

• Trump says JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon will not be invited to join his administration (Reuters)

ECONOMY

• October headline Producer Price Index increased 0.2% m/m, in line with consensus

• Fed's Barkin says wages, possible tariffs, reasons to be careful about declaring inflation victory (Reuters)

• Mexico's central bank lowered key interest rate to 10.25% from 10.5% (Bloomberg)

• Goldman Sachs says it now expects BOE to take slower approach to rate cuts next year (Bloomberg)

WHAT TO WATCH TODAY

• Healius, Lendlease, Mesoblast, Mirvac, PEXA and Sandfire Resources all host annual general meetings.

• Coles is now facing a class action lawsuit in addition to the ACCC's existing lawsuit which alleges that both it and Woolworths have been misleading consumers through discount pricing claims on hundreds of products at a time when inflation was at its highest.

• And one quote of interest from Goldman Sachs, who has issued a new US$95 per tonne iron ore price target:

  • “In the near term, further stimulus announcements, the current counter-seasonal increase in iron ore consumption, and expected iron ore and steel restocking ahead of the Lunar New Year could provide some temporary support to iron ore prices. However, we maintain our view that fundamentals will likely remain loose heading into next year, ultimately weighing on the iron ore price, which we forecast to average $US95 per tonne in 2025.”

BROKER MOVES

• Mineral Resources downgraded to hold from outperform at CLSA

• Orica upgraded to add from hold at Morgans

• Nufarm upgraded to add from hold at Morgans

• Orica assumed overweight at JPMorgan, bumps up price target by 10 cents to $20.90 per share

Stocks trading ex-dividend: 

• Mon 18 Nov: Rand Mining (RND) – 4.76%, Tamawood (TWD) – 3.06%, Tribune Resources (TBR) – 4.10%, Wam Leaders (WLE) – 3.38%

• Tue 19 Nov: None

• Wed 20 Nov: Amcor (AMC) – 1.22%, Wam Global (WGB) – 2.61%

• Thu 21 Nov: Terracom (TER) - 4.35%

• Fri 22 Nov: WAM Strategic Value (WAR) - 0.86%

Economic calendar (AEDT):

• 10:50am: Japan Q3 GDP

• 12:30pm: China Data Dump: House Prices, Industrial Production, Retail Sales, Unemployment Rate

• 6pm: UK Q3 GDP

• Overnight: US Retail Sales