Morning Bell 30 October

Between the Bells

Wall Street closed mixed on Tuesday with the Nasdaq extending its record run to end the day at a fresh record high as investors prepare for the release of key corporate earnings results out of some big tech names. The Nasdaq rose 0.78% to close at a record 18,712.75 points, while the S&P500 rose 0.16%, but the Dow Jones ended the day down 0.36%.

Earnings season has driven investor sentiment these last few weeks and we are awaiting key earnings out of the magnificent seven to provide key outlook on the broader market conditions based on earnings growth and forecasts out of the most valuable companies listed on the NYSE. Alphabet, Snap, Reddit and Chipotle are set to release results after the closing bell on Tuesday while Meta and Microsoft will release results on Wednesday US time.

Across the European markets overnight, markets closed lower as investors digested key corporate earnings results. The STOXX 600 fell 0.6%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.27%, the French CAC dropped 0.61% and, in the UK, the FTSE 100 ended the day down 0.8%. German airline Lufthansa fell 4.7% on Tuesday after reporting a 9% YoY fall in Q3 profit, while HSBC rose 3.3% after the bank released Q3 earnings that beat analysts’ estimates and announced it will repurchase up to $3bn in shares.

Asia markets closed mostly higher on Tuesday tracking gains on Wall St overnight with Japan’s Nikkei rising 0.77% on the back of the Japanese jobless rate falling to 2.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.35% on Tuesday and South Korea’s Kospi index ended the day up 0.21%.

The ASX started the week slightly higher on Monday and extended gains into Tuesday’s session with a rise of 0.34% at the closing bell as consumer discretionary and mining stocks boosted the local index to a second positive finish for the week. Tech stocks also did much of the heavy lifting for the local market yesterday on the back of Wall Street’s tech rally overnight.

On the retail front, Myer shares came under pressure on Tuesday after the department store giant agreed to acquire Premier Investments’ apparel brands including Just Jeans, Dotti and Jay Jays in a deal worth $950m. Premier Investments shares soared 11% on the news.
Luxury online fashion retail platform Cettire on the other hand tanked over 14% yesterday after providing the market with a first quarter trading update outlining a 17% margin for the quarter which is down from the 20% recorded in the PCP, and the company’s adjusted EBITDA fell 77% to $2m.

What to watch today:

• Ahead of the midweek trading session here in Australia the SPI futures are expecting the ASX to open the day down 0.08%.
• On the commodities front this morning, oil has steadied following a 6% plunge earlier in the week amid over-supply fears as demand remains resilient and geopolitical tensions and actions were not as impactful as first thought. This morning oil is trading 0.19% lower at US$67.26/barrel, gold is up 0.91% at US$2769.26/ounce and iron ore is down just 0.08% at US$104.15/tonne.
• The Aussie dollar has further weakened overnight to buy US$0.65, 100.54 Japanese Yen, 50.75 British Pence and NZ$1.10.

Trading Ideas:

• Bell Potter has downgraded Cettire (ASX:CTT) from a buy to a hold and have maintained the 12-month price target on the luxury online fashion retailer at $2/share following the release of the company’s 1Q25 update including net revenue rising 22% on the PCP which beat BPe, but lower margins and slowing sales growth leading to a decrease in the rating as headwinds and upcoming promotional periods weigh on earnings growth potential.
• And Trading Central has identified a bearish signal on Seven Group (ASX:SVW) following the formation of a pattern over a period of 33-days which is roughly the same amount of time the share price may fall from the close of $41.35 to the range of $39.10 to $39.50 according to standard principles of technical analysis.