AU Morning Wrap: ASX rises; Medibank dives 14% after withdrawing policy growth forecasts

Moomoo News AU wrote a column · Oct 26, 2022 07:35

G'day, mooers! Check out the latest news on today's stock market!
• S&P 500 rallies, Alphabet slumps on earnings miss
• ASX catches New York’s rally, gains 0.4 per cent
• Stocks to watch: Costa, Medibank, Coles
- moomoo News AU

Wall Street Summary
US stocks rose for a third session as soft reports on consumer confidence and housing gave the Fed further reason to take its foot off the rates accelerator. Falling yields boosted rate-sensitive growth stocks.

The $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ led with a rise of 247 points or 2.25 per cent. The $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ rallied 62 points or 1.63 per cent to its highest since September 21. The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ gained 337 points or 1.07 per cent.

Investors continued to embrace weak economic news as a sign this year's aggressive rate increases were having an impact.

AU Market Watch
$S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$ have taken a lead from Wall Street, gaining 0.4 per cent at the open on Wednesday to 6,826.

Real estate stocks led, gaining 1.85 per cent, while most sectors were higher. Only consumer staples were lower, falling 0.8 per cent as Coles fell 1.87 per cent.

Stocks to Watch
$Costa Group Holdings Ltd (CGC.AU)$: An entity managed by American private equity firm Paine Schwartz Partners has obtained an interest in 13.78 per cent of the issued securities of the fruit and vegetable grower.

$CommBank (CBA.AU)$: Australia's largest stockbroker, Commonwealth Bank-owned CommSec, will pay a $20 million fine after the Federal Court found it had broken the law when it over-charged customers on more than 120,000 occasions to the tune of about $4.3 million.

$Medibank Pvt Ltd (MPL.AU)$: Given the uncertain impact of this cybercrime event, Medibank is withdrawing its FY23 outlook for policyholder growth and will provide a further update at the 1H23 results.

The health insurer says $25 million to $35 million non-recurring cost will be absorbed within existing cost provisions, but no estimate for remediation.

$Coles Group Ltd (COL.AU)$: Supermarket giant Coles has reported strengthening sales revenue and retail sales in the first quarter of FY23 saying customers are responding to its latest value campaign.

Group sales rose 1.3 per cent to $9.9 billion compared to the prior corresponding quarter while gross retail sales rose 1.9 per cent to $10.2 billion.

$Whispir Ltd (WSP.AU)$: Software platform Whispir reports September quarter sales fell 15 per cent on the prior quarter to $14.4 million.

For the quarter it posted an operating cash outflow of $7.2 million, with a cash outflow of $1.4 million from investing activities.

$Iluka Resources Ltd (ILU.AU)$: Iluka has entered into an agreement with Northern Minerals for the supply of rare earths concentrate.

Ex-dividend: $McMillan Shakespeare Ltd (MMS.AU)$

Dividends paid: $Reece Ltd (REH.AU)$, $Latitude Group Holdings Ltd (LFS.AU)$

Commodities
• Iron ore futures fell 0.1% to US$93.75 a tonne.

"Iron ore prices may fluctuate along with steel product price trends with both demand and supply weakening when steelmakers keep low inventory, due to decreasing production profits and bearish market sentiment," Mysteel said in a note on Tuesday.

Chinese iron ore prices hit their lowest since last November and logged its longest stretched of weekly losses since 2016 last Friday.

• Oil and gold prices were mostly unchanged.

• Buying interest in gold was supported by declines in the US dollar and treasury yields, traditional rivals for fund flows. Gold for December delivery settled US$3.90 or 0.2 per cent ahead at US$1,658 an ounce. The NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index rallied 1.62 per cent.

Source: Dow Jones Newswires, AFR

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