AU Morning Wrap: ASX falls, BHP shares tumble on ex-dividend

Wall Street Summary
US stocks gave up early gains as rising treasury yields continued to weigh on growth sectors. Investors largely ignored private-sector employment data that was recently revamped due to its unreliability as a guide to Friday's official Labor Department jobs report.

The $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ faded to a loss of 31 points or 0.78 per cent. The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ gave up 280 points or 0.88 per cent. The $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ fell 67 points or 0.56 per cent.

The S&P 500 and Dow both fell around 4.2% in August. The Nasdaq was down 4.6%. All three major US benchmarks registered their biggest August percentage declines since 2015.

AU Market Watch
The S&P/ASX 200 outperformed its US counterparts last month, but will surely cede some ground this session as institutions unwind some of the monthly rebalancing that aided the local market over the last two sessions.

ASX futures slumped 69 points or 1 per cent. Index heavyweight BHP looms as a major drag today as its shares trade ex-dividend. Dividend payouts will be a persistent headwind for the index this month.

Australian shares opened lower this morning. The $S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$ lost 2 per cent to 6847.3 as of 10:16 am.

Stocks to Watch
$Droneshield Ltd (DRO.AU)$: ASX-listed Drone detection and defence business Droneshield says it has received an order worth $2 million from a European government for drone defence systems.

$Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corp Ltd (FPH.AU)$: New Zealand-based healthcare giant Fisher & Paykel has inked a $NZ275 million deal to acquire a 105-hectare land site in Karaka, Auckland. The site will deliver a new research and development campus with the company paying an initial 10 per cent deposit.

Ex-dividend: $AGL Energy Ltd (AGL.AU)$, $BHP Group Ltd (BHP.AU)$, $Credit Corp Group Ltd (CCP.AU)$, $Fenix Resources Ltd (FEX.AU)$, $GR Engineering Services Ltd (GNG.AU)$, $HMC Capital Ltd (HMC.AU)$, $Integral Diagnostics Ltd (IDX.AU)$, $InvoCare Ltd (IVC.AU)$, $Jumbo Interactive Ltd (JIN.AU)$, $Johns Lyng Group Ltd (JLG.AU)$, $Money3 Corp Ltd (MNY.AU)$, $Peoplein Ltd (PPE.AU)$, $Platinum Asset Management Ltd (PTM.AU)$, $Silk Logistics Holdings Ltd (SLH.AU)$, $Whitehaven Coal Ltd (WHC.AU)$

Dividends paid: $Dicker Data Ltd (DDR.AU)$

Commodities
• Iron ore futures were flat at US$101 a tonne. Prices briefly dipped to lows of US$97.4 a tonne on Wednesday. China's manufacturing PMI for August was better-than-expected but still in contraction. Second-quarter earnings at 25 listed Chinese steel mills fell more than -70% compared to a year ago, according to Bloomberg.

• Oil prices fell again as record high inflation in the Eurozone further validates aggressive tightening from the ECB.

Baghdad is looking to raise exports and find new customers, bringing a potential 3.2m barrels of daily shipments back online, according to Bloomberg.

US crude oil production rose 1.7% in June to its highest level since April 2020, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

• Gold continues to struggle amid an increasingly aggressive stance from central banks, rising global bond yields and a strong US dollar.

Source: Dow Jones Newswires, AFR