Pavan Sharma

We remain BUY rated on QBE as it is still reasonably priced on a 13x price to earnings ratio, paying a dividend yield of 3%.

The consumer price index rose +0.5% for the month of July (as expected) and +5.4% for the year to July, which provided reassurance to the market that interest rates could remain relatively stable.

As widely anticipated, the US Senate finally passed the infrastructure bill, worth about $1 trillion with $550bn of new spending, seen as a political win for President Biden, but it still faces some hurdles to pass in the House before being implemented.

Insurance and banking stocks supported the ASX yesterday, making up for falls across a broad range of sectors as earnings season moved up a gear.

Positive US jobs data pushed cyclical stocks higher (Financials led gains +2.0%), while rising bond yields saw growth and defensive stocks underperform.

Global markets were higher overnight, with the US market (S&P 500 index +0.6%) at all-time highs as several solid earnings results boosted sentiment ahead of tonight’s monthly US unemployment data (nonfarm payroll report).