Australia stocks are trading lower, taking their lead from the overnight Wall Street bloodbath that shaved more than 3% off the Nasdaq and more than 2% off the S&P 500.
Sydney’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is currently 0.8% lower, erasing yesterday’s 0.3% gain but still outperforming the heavier losses on some of the other Asia exchanges this morning.
A pullback for the Australian dollar to below the 94-U.S.-cent level — falling back to around where it was before the currency rallied on yesterday’s upbeat Aussie jobs report — seems to be weighing on some of the forex-sensitive shares. Bluescope Steel is down 1.9%, while James Hardie is 1.7% lower, for instance.
The heavily weighted miners and banks are under some pressure: BHP Billiton is down 0.9%, Rio Tinto is down 1.2%, Fortescue Metals is down 2.9%, and ANZ and CBA are each 0.8% lower.
Shares of Bank of Queensland are on halt pending the announcement of an acquisition (it’s buying some Investic Bank finance units) and capital raising (to raise money for the acquisition). This after the lender announced a record first-half cash profit.
Shares of Coca Cola Amatil are not on trading halt, but perhaps shareholders wish they were, as the stock is down 13.8% on the back of a profit warning. It sees first-half pretax earnings down about 15% and says it will undertake a strategic review to cut costs and boost productivity.
On the upside, Paladin Energy is up a stunning 3.5%. The rally coincides with an article in the Motley Fool that names the uranium miner as one of three “cheap mining stocks with significant upside.”Of the other two miners named in the article, Mincor Resources is up 2%, but Cockatoo Coal is down 2.8%.
Sydney’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is currently 0.8% lower, erasing yesterday’s 0.3% gain but still outperforming the heavier losses on some of the other Asia exchanges this morning.
A pullback for the Australian dollar to below the 94-U.S.-cent level — falling back to around where it was before the currency rallied on yesterday’s upbeat Aussie jobs report — seems to be weighing on some of the forex-sensitive shares. Bluescope Steel is down 1.9%, while James Hardie is 1.7% lower, for instance.
The heavily weighted miners and banks are under some pressure: BHP Billiton is down 0.9%, Rio Tinto is down 1.2%, Fortescue Metals is down 2.9%, and ANZ and CBA are each 0.8% lower.
Shares of Bank of Queensland are on halt pending the announcement of an acquisition (it’s buying some Investic Bank finance units) and capital raising (to raise money for the acquisition). This after the lender announced a record first-half cash profit.
Shares of Coca Cola Amatil are not on trading halt, but perhaps shareholders wish they were, as the stock is down 13.8% on the back of a profit warning. It sees first-half pretax earnings down about 15% and says it will undertake a strategic review to cut costs and boost productivity.
On the upside, Paladin Energy is up a stunning 3.5%. The rally coincides with an article in the Motley Fool that names the uranium miner as one of three “cheap mining stocks with significant upside.”Of the other two miners named in the article, Mincor Resources is up 2%, but Cockatoo Coal is down 2.8%.