News

The New Zealand market (NZX 50 Index, 0.6%) continued advancing Tuesday on optimism of China’s reopening.  The heavyweights of the index were some of the best performers on the day, including Mainfreight (+3.5%) and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (+2.4%). 

The New Zealand market (NZX 50 Index, +0.5%) followed global trends of a positive start to the year to reach a four-month high. One of the highlights was Auckland Interntional Airport which shot up +2% to $8.31 a share touching post-covid highs.

Good morning and welcome to our inaugural “Market Thoughts”, our newsletter covering Blackbull Research’s house views on broad-based market themes on the week that’s been and the week ahead. Let’s crack into it.

This will be the final daily email of the year returning back mid-January and would like to take this time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy new year.  It has been a volatile year, headlined by out-of-control inflation, aggressive rate hikes by central banks tightening loose monetary policy from the onset of the pandemic to cool demand, while the Ukraine invasion creating added fuel crisis. We believe next year would be another year dominated by more volatility as we see the full effects of the rate hikes play out to cool economic activity with stability in the market still some time away and think a soft landing (which some may still hope for) is now out of the picture. For that reason, we are on a more cautious and defensive position and would wait to see how the next 3-9 months play out before making any major positions.

The New Zealand market (NZX 50 Index, +0.2%) rose marginally on Thursday.  Auckland mayor Wayne Brown caused Auckland International Airport (-0.5%) stock to be placed in a trading halt after making unsubstantiated claims that the company plans to issue more shares to raise capital. Trading resumed after Auckland International Airport refuted the claim.

US markets (S&P 500 Index -0.7%) struggled to hold onto gains after, in its final meeting of the year, the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by half a percentage point(+0.50%), in a move widely expected by the market. The move brings the fed funds rate to a range of 4.25%-4.5%.  

The New Zealand market (NZX 50 Index, +0.8%) experienced a broad-based advance on Tuesday. Pacific Edge (+7.6%) rallied after announcing that new clinical evidence showed significant improvements in the performance of its Cxbladder product and had been accepted for publication in the American Urological Association (AUA) Journal of Urology.  Dairy shares performed well for a second day, with A2 Milk (+2.0%), Synlait Milk (+0.6%), and Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund units (+0.3%) advancing. 

US markets (S&P 500 Index +1.2%) advanced on Monday, as it recovers from one of its worst weeks since September. 

Many internationally important events will occur this week, including the interest rate decisions the US Federal Reserve, The Bank of England, and the European Central Bank. Locally, we have Food Inflation data on Tuesday and NZ GDP Growth Rate on Thursday.