Morning (AM) Market Report

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Published on Thursday, 15 September 2016 00:00

U.S. stocks finished lower overnight after falling oil prices dragged on energy shares, while speculation surrounding the timing of the U.S. Federal Reserve's next interest-rate hike remained firmly on investors' minds.

Thursday, 15th September, 2016

According to media reports, even a 3.6 percent rise in Apple to its highest level this year was unable to offset the declines on the Dow, after analysts outlined reasons why the tech giant is still a buy.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones was down 0.2%, the S&P 500 was 0.1% lower, while the Nasdaq bucked the trend, ending up 0.4%.

Monsanto (MON) has accepted Bayer's (BAYRY) takeover offer of $128 per share, including a breakup fee of $2 billion (4% of Monsanto's market cap). The acceptance comes after months of back-and-forth between the two companies, beginning with Bayer's initial offer of $122 per share in June. American Electric Power (AEP) announced plans to sell four merchant coal and gas power plants totaling 5.2 gigawatts for $2.17 billion to a joint venture between Blackstone and ArcLight Capital Partners.

For Australian ADRs listed on the NYSE, BHP Billiton rose 61 cents (2.08%) to $29.98, ResMed gained 14 cents (0.21%) to $64.87, Telstra Corporation rose 53 cents (2.88%) to $18.94, Spark New Zealand lifted 14 cents (1.05%) to $13.01 and Westpac gained 34 cents (1.59%) to $21.70. At 8:00 am (AEST), the 10-year Treasury note yield was 1.70% and the 5-year yield was 1.21%.

European markets closed mostly lower on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 was up 0.1%, while the French CAC 40 fell 0.4% and Germany's DAX fell 0.1%. Asian markets finished lower. The Hang Seng was down 0.1%, the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.7%, while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.7%. India's Sensex lifted 0.1%.

Ahead of the local open, SPI futures were 19 points lower at 5,214.