AU Morning Wrap: ASX Eases 0.1%, QBE Tumbles, News Corp Rallies

Moomoo News AU wrote a column · May 12, 2023 08:36

G'day, mooers! Check out the latest news on today's stock market!
• US stocks mixed, copper slumps to six month low
• ASX in soft start
• Stocks to watch: QBE Insurance, News Corp, Select Harvest
- Moomoo News AU

AU Morning Wrap: ASX Eases 0.1%, QBE Tumbles, News Corp Rallies

Wall Street Summary

Shares in Walt Disney, Peloton Interactive and some regional banks weighed on stock indexes Thursday, offsetting gains among most Big Tech firms after the U.S. economy showed fresh signs of cooling.

Weekly jobless claims ticked higher Thursday, while a Labor Department measure of producer prices notched its slowest rate of growth since January 2021, providing new evidence that inflation is slowing and the Federal Reserve may pause interest-rate hikes next month.

Still, major stock indexes wavered for most of the day and finished mixed. The $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ fell 0.7%, or 221.82 points, while the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ edged down 0.2%. The technology-heavy $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ eked out a 0.2% gain.

AU Market Watch

The $S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$ eased 0.14 per cent in a cautious start on Friday as losses in miners and energy countered gains in healthcare and consumer discretionary.

Shares in QBE Insurance dropped 5.8 per cent after damage from US storms and Australian flooding last year dealt the company an additional $190 million profit hit.

Shares in News Corp rallied 3.2 per cent even as earnings dropped 11 per cent to $US320 million ($477 million) in the March quarter due to an insipid advertising market, rising costs and lower property prices.

REA Group stock edged up 0.1 per cent. Its revenue fell $US24 million, or 10 per cent, to $US222 million, with fewer homes for sale and lower financial services income.

Shares in almond grower Select Harvest retreated 1.1 per cent after lowering crop volumes forecast for 2023.

Software company $Technology One Ltd (TNE.AU)$ edged up 0.3 per cent. It confirmed that its cyber incident had not affected its external customers.

Stocks to Watch

$QBE Insurance Group Ltd (QBE.AU)$: Insurance group QBE upgraded its gross written premium (GWP) growth outlook to 10 per cent for fiscal 2023, from a range of 5 per cent to 9 per cent forecast previously, thanks to supportive interest rates.

GWP in the first quarter of 2023 jumped 11 per cent from the previous quarter or 14 per cent in constant currency. Group-wide renewal rate increases averaged 10 per cent, supported by a re-acceleration across property classes, and higher rate increases for QBE Re.

Insurance group QBE declared a final dividend of 30¢ per share, compared to 19¢ in 2021, it said at the AGM following its result earlier on Friday.

$News Corp (NWS.AU)$: News Corp revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2023 fell 2 per cent to $2.45 billion from a year ago, as challenging housing market conditions in the US and Australia weighed on the Digital Real Estate Services segment.

The decline was partially offset by higher Dow Jones segment revenues, which includes the acquisitions of OPIS and Chemical Market Analytics, and higher revenues at the News Media and Subscription Video Services segments on a constant currency basis.

$REA Group Ltd (REA.AU)$: Property listings portal REA Group revenue declined 3 per cent to $269 million in the third quarter due to challenging economic conditions in Australia, with earnings down 13 per cent to $136 million.

Revenue rose 2 per cent in the nine months through March to $887 million, from a year ago.

Residential Buy yield growth is anticipated to grow 10 per cent in fiscal 2023.

$Select Harvests Ltd (SHV.AU)$: Australia's second-largest almond grower Select Harvest lowered its 2023 crop forecast to 17,500 metric tonnes, down from 29,000 last year. It blamed smaller volumes across the weighbridge and lower crack-out rates.

Yet a sharp drop in the US crop allowed the company to upgrade its 2023 net average pricing forecast crop to a range of $7.40-$7.80/kg with further potential increases.