Morning (AM) Market Report

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Published on Thursday, 25 August 2016 00:00

U.S. markets hit a two-week low overnight, weighed down by losses in the healthcare and materials sectors, while oil prices tumbled about 3% on worries about oversupply.

Thursday, 25th August, 2016

According to media reports, falls in healthcare shares were led by Mylan (MYL) after U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton joined a Senate committee in asking why the cost of its allergy treatment EpiPen had soared. Losses in the materials sector were led by Newmont Mining (NEM) and Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) after gold and copper prices slumped, reports said.

At the close, the Dow was 0.35% lower, the S&P 500 had lost 0.52% and the Nasdaq had dropped 0.81%.

Intuit (INTU) reported a good end to the fiscal year with continued momentum for its small business online ecosystem. QuickBooks Online subscriber growth was healthy, with the firm finishing the year with 1.5 million paid subscribers, helping support the company's cloud-based vision and international growth aspirations.

For Australian ADRs listed on the NYSE, BHP Billiton slipped 71 cents (-2.17%) to $31.98, ResMed added 68 cents (1.01%) to $68.00, Telstra Corporation lost 20 cents (-0.98%) to $20.12 and Westpac gained 12 cents (0.52%) to $23.32. At 8:00 am(AEST), the 10-year Treasury note yield was 1.56% and the 5-year yield was 1.14%.

European markets finished mixed Germany's DAX and the French CAC 40 were both up 0.3%, while the FTSE 100 ended 0.5% lower. Asian markets were also mixed. The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were down 0.8% and 0.1%, respectively, while the Nikkei gained 0.6%. India's Sensex added 0.3%.

Ahead of the local open, SPI futures were 6 points lower at 5,537.