AU Morning Wrap: ASX rises; Virtus terminates deed with CapVest

Wall Street Summary
Strong trading updates from Macy's, Dollar Tree and Dollar General fuelled a relief rally in beaten-down retail stocks amid a suspicion concerns about consumer spending were overblown. Tech stocks surged on takeover action and a positive reaction to earnings from chipmaker Nvidia.

The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ gained 1.6% and the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ advanced 2.0% after reports from Macy's, Dollar General and Dollar Tree lifted sentiment across the market. The tech-heavy $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ climbed 2.7%, helped by gains in shares of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com and Tesla.

AU Market Watch
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 is shaping for a strong open after retailer results help lift U.S. stocks. ASX futures are up by almost 1%, giving the market its strongest pre-open signal of the week. The ASX 200 is down 0.6% so far this week after falling 0.7% on Thursday.

Australian shares opened higher this morning. The $S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$ gained 1.16 per cent to 7188 as of 10:12 am.

Stocks to Watch
$Infomedia Ltd (IFM.AU)$: American tech-focused private equity form Battery Ventures has lobbed a $1.75 a share bid for Infomedia, which has now got three suitors on its heel.

$Kelsian Group Ltd (KLS.AU)$: The tourism and commuter bus company SeaLink Travel Group, now known as Kelsian Group, is selling its East London public bus operations to Stagecoach Group for £20 million ($35 million) as it repositions its business in the UK.

$Newcrest Mining Ltd (NCM.AU)$: Newcrest Mining said it has identified gold-copper targets and high-priority soil. The IGO Paterson Farm-in project detected seven copper and gold anomalies, three air core anomalies and four soil anomalies.

$Virtus Health Ltd (VRT.AU)$: Virtus has terminated its Transaction Implementation Deed with CapVest. Deloitte said the CapVest’s takeover offer was not in the best interests of shareholders in light of BGH’s revised offer received earlier this week.

Ex-Dividend: $CSR Ltd (CSR.AU)$, $Whitefield Industrials Ltd (WHF.AU)$

Dividends Paid: $Acrow Ltd (ACF.AU)$, $Future Generation Global Ltd (FGG.AU)$, $WAM Active Ltd (WAA.AU)$, $WAM Global Ltd (WGB.AU)$

Commodities
• Iron ore futures dipped 2% on Thursday.
• Oil is pushing a two-month high.
• Gold prices edged lower as risk appetite returned to equities.

Source: Dow Jones Newswires, AFR