Reece Taps Investors For Capital, Qube Scraps Outlook
A busy day yesterday for fundraisings with plumbing supplies giant Reece becoming another company to ask shareholders for a new investment – this time it was $600 million.
Read MoreA busy day yesterday for fundraisings with plumbing supplies giant Reece becoming another company to ask shareholders for a new investment – this time it was $600 million.
Read MoreSeek was another company yesterday to withdraw its earnings guidance and postpone the payment of dividends because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read MoreGold ended higher on Friday off the back of the weak employment report for March which showed the damage from COVID-19 is ripping the heart out of the US jobs market and will do even worse damage in the coming months.
Read MoreThe number of new COVID-19 cases, lockdowns and their economic impact and the global policy response to deal with it will remain the focus in the week ahead, especially in the US, Spain, the UK, South America, Indonesia, and Africa.
Read MoreBrazil’s iron ore exports are still weak and for the third month in a row fell year on year from March.
Read MoreFor the week US shares fell 2.1%, Eurozone shares lost 2.2% and Japanese shares were down 8.1% which saw them give up some of their gains from the previous week. However, Chinese rose 0.1% and Australian shares rose 4.7%, with the latter playing a bit of catchup and getting a boost from the Australian Government’s massive wage subsidy program.
Read MoreThe ASX is looking at a modest start to trading later this morning despite Wall Street’s fall on Friday in the wake of the weaker than expected March jobs report.
Read MoreTomorrow’s Reserve Bank board meeting looks anti-climatic. The central bank will be looking for a rest after its busy March when it cut the cash rate to a record low of 0.25% and put in place a series of supports for the financial system to allow it to flex as pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic started slamming into it.
Read MoreWhile global oil prices finished last week with gains of 22% plus uncertainty now dominates with OPEC plus Russia due to meet this week and production cuts will be the only topic of substance to be discussed.
Read MoreNow for the slowdown which could be the worst America has had outside the Great Depression as more than 6 million made their first jobless benefit claims last week – a record number in fact that followed an earlier record the week before.
Read MoreWall Street bounced on Thursday as hopes of a truce between Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut oil output drove a record 22% surge in prices, more than offsetting the shock of over 6 million Americans filing for jobless claims due to COVID-19 driven business lockdowns.
Read MoreOil prices had their best day on record (two days after experiencing the biggest quarterly slide on record) after President Donald Trump said he expected Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut output by as much as 10 million to 15 million barrels a day.
Read MoreIt’s getting harder for Australian financial regulators to avoid joining their peers in New Zealand, the UK and EU in ordering banks to suspend their dividends and other capital management moves such as share buybacks.
Read MoreShares in IDP Education surged more than 20% yesterday after the struggling group raised a lot more money than originally planned. Kathmandu has also completed the institutional component of its deeply discounted $200 million capital raise, raising gross proceeds of around $NZ154 million ($150 million).
Read MoreShares in embattled online travel retailer Webjet ended lower, but higher after resuming trading yesterday after an emergency fund raising. In doing so Webjet revealed it had picked up a new best friend from the issue in aggressive US private equity giant Bain Capital.
Read MoreSo much for the ASX’s sharp 3% plus rise on Wednesday – the Australian market turned out to be an outlier as other markets started April and the new quarter deeply in the red.
Read MoreGold futures on Wednesday started the new month with a loss, stretching their fall to a fourth straight session.
Read MoreShale oil producer Whiting Petroleum Corp has gone broke, becoming the first casualty of the Russia-Saudi Arabia oil price and volume war that has seen prices for US crude slump 50% in the past month to $US20 a barrel.
Read MoreChina’s second survey of manufacturing activity last month rose back into positive territory, as did the official survey on Tuesday but the make up of the recovery wasn’t convincing and the weaknesses of these types of surveys were again exposed.
Read MoreToll road giant Transurban has joint the still-growing list of companies to withdraw or suspend guidance for 2019-20 or 2020 financial year.
Read MoreBarclays, RBS, Lloyds, Standard Chartered, Santander and HSBC have all agreed to not proceed with dividends. Will Australian financial regulators follow their peers in the EU and UK and tell major banks to suspend dividends and planned buybacks?
Read MoreFool’s paradise? Sydney and Melbourne house prices again rose strongly in March but there were more signs of a slowdown following tough restrictions on how real estate agents can sell properties during the coronavirus pandemic.
Read MoreKathmandu (KMD) seems to have struck a snag with Briscoe Group, the largest shareholder deciding not to participate in the outdoor wear retailer’s emergency $NZ207 ($A201 million) capital raising.
Read MoreOnline travel group Webjet wants $275 million in new capital to see it through the coronavirus crisis which has wiped out travel and tourism demand globally.
Read MoreWall Street had its worst loss for decades in the quarter to March 31 as a brutal sell-off last month, courtesy of the still-growing impact of the COVID-10 virus, forced governments everywhere to stun economies and put them into sleep mode, in some cases deep hibernation.
Read MorePractically every sector bar supermarkets, took a pounding. Travel, media, oil and gas, mining, technology, financials such as the big banks were all whacked but one stock that stood out was a big surprise.
Read MoreThe OPEC+ supply war and COVID-19 flattened oil prices in March and the first quarter left gold higher, silver lower and left copper a loser.
Read MoreThe ASX has ended a month and a quarter full of unwelcome records – the largest monthly fall on record of 21.1% in March for the ASX 200 was probably the most obvious and the $450 billion in lost value in the quarter was another when the key index shed 24.1%.
Read MoreVirgin Australia wants a bailout from Canberra, regional operator, Rex does as well, while Air New Zealand, which last week received a $NZ900 million capital injection from the Kiwi government, has started following its Australian rivals and slashing staff numbers.
Read MoreChina’s economy stabilised in March, recovering after taking an enormous hit due to attempts to stop the spread of the coronavirus during February.
Read MoreWesfarmers has raised $1.060 billion from another sale of part of its stake in Coles Group. Wesfarmers said it had sold 5.2% of Coles at $15.39 a share.
Read MoreGlobal oil benchmark Brent crude plunged to its cheapest in 18 years on Monday, while US crude briefly tumbled below $US20 per barrel, on growing fears the global coronavirus shutdown could last months and further drop demand for energy.
Read MoreQBE was another to withdrew guidance yesterday, citing “extraordinarily difficult times for all stakeholders”. However, IAG shares surged more than 10% after the country’s biggest general insurer left its 2019-20 guidance in place.
Read MoreProtective products maker Ansell has reaffirmed its 2019-20 guidance and confirmed that the coronavirus has lifted demand for its goods, but cautioned about it being a long term trend.
Read MoreGold futures ended lower on Monday, as Wall Street rose strongly, the dollar followed suit and traders wondered about the rapidly moving developments in the coronavirus pandemic.
Read MoreThe Morrison’s governments’ third COVID-19 support package, is the biggest so far with over $130 billion on offer to support the wages of up to six million Australian’s through the current crisis.
Read MoreEftpos provider Tyro Payments has withdrawn the guidance in its prospectus while Bank of Queensland has also scrapped its 2019-20 earnings guidance but maintains that its capital position and funding are strong after a recent $340 million capital raising.
Read MoreA quieter start is expected today for the ASX despite a big rise on Wall Street on Monday, following in the footsteps of the local market’s record 7% gain.
Read MoreThe Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced on Monday that it was planning to start buying corporate bonds from banks this week to keep business well supplied with liquidity
Read MoreThe Morrison government has ended all exemptions for foreign asset purchases which means everyone, no matter the size, must go to the Foreign investment review board for clearance.
Read More