AU Morning Wrap: ASX rises; United Malt dives 11% on profit warning

Wall Street Summary
US stocks finished their best month since November 2020 with further gains following well-received trading updates from market heavyweights Apple and Amazon. A gloomy consumer sentiment reading and a surge in consumer prices failed to derail the rally.

The $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ advanced 58 points or 1.42 per cent. The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ gained 316 points or 0.97 per cent. The $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ put on 228 points or 1.88 per cent.

AU Market Watch
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 seems set to extend its gains at the open after U.S. stocks continued to climb at the end of last week. ASX futures are up by 0.7%, suggesting the benchmark index will add to the 2.3% it gained last week. The ASX 200 rose by 0.8% on Friday, completing its first monthly gain since March. It rose by 5.7% in July.

Australian shares opened higher this morning. The $S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$ gained 0.29 per cent to 6965 as of 10:16 am.

Stocks to Watch
$Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AU)$: Westpac has completed the sale of Westpac Life Insurance Services to TAL Dai-ichi Life Australia. Westpac expects to report a total after tax loss on sale of approximately $1.37 billion, of which $270 million was incurred in the group's FY21 results.

$Ioneer Ltd (INR.AU)$: Ioneer has signed a binding offtake supply agreement with the Prime Planet Energy & Solutions (PPES) joint venture between Toyota Motor and Panasonic. Under the agreement, ioneer will deliver 4000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate from its Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron operation in Nevada, to PPES over a five-year term.

$United Malt Group Ltd (UMG.AU)$: United Malt Group expects underlying EBITDA (before software as a service costs) for FY22 to be in the range of around $100 million to $108 million.

$Aussie Broadband Ltd (ABB.AU)$: Aussie Broadband expects to generate EBITDA for the 2022 financial year at the top end of the existing guidance range of $38 million to $39 million. The company said total broadband services increased by 35,882, or 7 per cent, to 584,793 over the fourth quarter of FY22. This represents a year-on-year increase of 46 per cent.

Dividends paid: $Collins Foods Ltd (CKF.AU)$

Commodities
• Iron ore futures rallied 7.4% to US$115.5 a tonne."The impact of accelerating pro-growth policy measures will drive a solid 3Q economic recovery, suggesting that the operating environment for industrial corporates will likely improve steadily," said JP Morgan analysts last week.
• Oil prices briefly rallied thanks to positive demand outlook comments from Exxon and Chevron. Still, profit-taking kicked in strongly, with WTI fading from a session high of US$101.9.
• Gold is finding its groove again, rallying close to a 1-month high as bond yields peak and the US dollar weakens.

Source: Dow Jones Newswires, AFR