US markets finally took a breather as the Easter break will mean a shorter and quieter trading week.
The Dow Jones fell 164 points or 0.4%. The S&P 500 closed down 0.2 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite finished the day down 0.1 per cent.
Turning to US sectors, Industrials and Technology were the worst performers closing down 0.68 per cent & 0.52 per cent respectively. The best performing sector was Energy, which continued its rally closing up almost 1 per cent.
In company specific news Intel fell 1 per cent after the FT reported that new Chinese guidelines will effectively block Intel chips from being used in government computers. United Airlines closed down 4 per cent on news the Federal Aviation Administration will be watching the airline closely after several recent safety incidents.
The US DOE announced $6B in federal funding to subsidise 33 industrial projects in 20 states to cut carbon emissions and decarbonize manufacturing across high polluting sectors such as steel, cement, chemicals and fuel refining. European firms are among the winners, with three of the five largest awards, each worth up to $500M, going to European parent companies. These companies will match US government investment in a cost-sharing model.
In commodities news, cocoa surged past US$9000 a tonne for the first time ever driven by supply constraints. Cocoa Futures are now up over 50 per cent this month and have more than doubled this year.
In domestic news it appears that Small-cap stocks are finally outperforming large caps. The ASX Small Ordinaries is currently on track to finish ahead of the ASX 200 for the second quarter in a row. If the momentum continues the Small Ords could beat their large cap peers for the first time since 2021.
Futures
The SPI futures are pointing to a 0.4 per cent fall.
Currency
One Australian dollar at 7.45am was buying 65.39 US cents.
Commodities
Gold added 0.58 per cent. Silver fell 0.01 per cent. Copper gained 0.11 per cent. Oil jumped 1.55 per cent.
Figures around the globe
European markets closed mixed. London’s FTSE lost 0.17 per cent, Frankfurt added 0.30 per cent, and Paris closed flat.
Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 1.16 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.16 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.71 per cent..
Yesterday, the Australian share market closed 0.53 per cent higher at 7,811.94
Ex-dividends
Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) is paying 20 cents unfranked
Civmec Limited (ASX:CVL) is paying 2.5 cents fully franked
Flight Centre Travel (ASX:FLT) is paying 10 cents fully franked
New Zealand Oil&Gas (ASX:NZO) is paying 2.55cents unfranked
Southern Cross Electrical Engineer (ASX:SXE) is paying 1 cent fully franked
Dividends payable
Altium Ltd (ASX:ALU)
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX:BEN)
BlueScope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL)
Dusk Group Ltd (ASX:DSK)
Embark Early Education Ltd (ASX:EVO)
Maxiparts Ltd (ASX:MXI)
Meridian Energy Ltd (ASX:MEZ)
Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN)
Nick Scali Ltd (ASX:NCK)
Sources: Bloomberg, FactSet, IRESS, TradingView, UBS, Bourse Data, Trading Economics, CoinMarketCap.
