Morning (AM) Market Report

Details

Published on Monday, 29 August 2016 00:00

U.S. shares ended mostly lower on Friday after Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen's highly anticipated speech confirmed a rate hike is likely in the months ahead.

Monday, 29th August, 2016

According to media reports, Yellen said that given the continued solid performance of the U.S. labour market and the Fed's outlook for economic activity and inflation, she believed "the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has strengthened in recent months". But Yellen confirmed this was also dependent upon further economic data.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 were down 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively, while the Nasdaq was 0.1% higher.

India's Tata Motors (TTM) reported first-quarter fiscal 2017 earnings per share (EPS) of 5.22 rupee, a dramatic 1.53 rupee below the market consensus EPS of 6.75 rupee and 41% lower than the year-ago EPS result of 8.79 rupee. Even so, the stock reacted positively, as revenue of 661 billion rupee was 2% better than the consensus forecast and 10% higher than first-quarter fiscal 2016. The unfavourable swing in the British pound was the main driver behind the earnings shortfall. Software company Autodesk (ADSK) reported a good second quarter, with better-than-expected revenue growth and continued momentum for its business-model transition to subscriptions and flexible licensing. The revenue outperformance was largely attributable to the firm ending the sale of new perpetual licenses for suites during the quarter, which led to strong last-chance buying from customers.

For Australian ADRs listed on the NYSE, BHP Billiton fell 26 cents (-0.80%) to $32.09, ResMed gained 59 cents (0.86%) to $69.03, Telstra Corporation rose 7 cents (0.35%) to $20.04 and Westpac declined 36 cents (-1.56%) to $22.77. At 7:45 am (AEST), the 10-year Treasury note yield was 1.63% and the 5-year yield was 1.24%.

European markets closed higher on Friday. The FTSE 100, French CAC 40 and Germany's DAX rose 0.3%, 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively. Asian markets finished mixed. The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite rose 0.4% and 0.1%, respectively, while the Nikkei 225 fell 1.2%. India's Sensex dropped 0.2%.

Ahead of the local open, SPI futures were 4 points lower at 5,482.