AU Morning Wrap: Shares advance; Medibank warns more patient data stolen in hack

Moomoo News AU wrote a column · Oct 24, 2022 23:31

G'day, mooers! Check out the latest news on today's stock market!
• Wall St extends gains
• The S&P/ASX 200 Index is up 0.53 per cent in early trade
• Stocks to watch: Credit Corp, Pilbara Minerals, Reliance Worldwide
- moomoo News AU

Wall Street Summary
US stocks added to last week's bumper gains amid hopes next week's Federal Reserve meeting will mark a turning point in this year's aggressive series of rate hikes. Wall Street's main indices were coming off their best week in months following reports the central bank may reduce the size of rate increases from December onwards.

Overnight, the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ rallied 45 points or 1.19 per cent. The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ gained 417 points or 1.34 per cent. The $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ added 93 points or 0.86 per cent.

AU Market Watch
The $S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$ is up 0.53 per cent in early trade, with the healthcare sector the best performer in adding 1.2 per cent.

.XJO S&P/ASX 200

6815.300

+35.900

+0.53%

Trading Session

Oct 25, 2022 10:30 AET

The only sector lower is energy, down 0.2 per cent as benchmark oil futures retreated overnight on weak global PMI data suggesting manufacturing is slowing.

Stocks to Watch
$SomnoMed Ltd (SOM.AU)$: Sleep treatment business SomnoMed has posted an operating cash loss of $5.6 million on September quarter sales up 19 per cent to $17.6 million. It said US sales grew 44 per cent to $7.3 million. Management guided for financial 2023 sales of more than 20 per cent.

$Medibank Pvt Ltd (MPL.AU)$: Health insurer Medibank says it's now aware that a criminal took Medibank customer data in addition to that of ahm and international customers.

It said it had received specific files from the criminal, but made no mention of specific ransom or blackmail demands and said the matter is under investigation by the Australian Federal Police.

$Reliance Worldwide Corp Ltd (RWC.AU)$: Plumbing business Reliance Worldwide has posted sales growth of 23 per cent for the September quarter, versus the prior corresponding quarter. It said total sales finished at $303.1 million including net sales of $US53.8 million from its EZ-Flo acquisition.

$Ampol Ltd (ALD.AU)$: Ampol says it's on track to post record full-year earnings, with statutory net profit of $667.5 million for the nine months to September 30, 2022.

Ex-dividend: $Clover Corp Ltd (CLV.AU)$

Dividends paid: None

Commodities
• Iron ore futures rose 0.1% to US$94.75 a tonne. China's September crude steel output rose 17.6% year-on-year to 86.95m tonnes.

• Oil prices tumbled after bearish PMIs flagged that global manufacturing is contracting.

"The short-term crude outlook has been heavy mostly on European weaknes, but now the US outlook is softening very quickly," said Oanda senior market analyst, Ed Moya.

• Gold faded from session highs of US$1,670 as the US dollar and yields began to bounce.

"Gold traders are buckling in for a bumpy ride as this week's risk flows will be determined by some heavyweight earnings and from a couple massive rate decisions from the ECB and BOJ," said Moya.

Source: Dow Jones Newswires, AFR

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