The ASX worked through the weekend to fix problems with its problematic CHESS system and is confident it can catch up trading settlements when the markets open today.
Australia’s stock exchange operator said the market will open as normal today after finding the issue that prevented trades made on Wednesday Dec 18 from being settled on Friday Dec 20, and leaving traders racing to find the cash to cover the transactions.
“We recognise the significant disruption this caused on Friday to our stakeholders and we apologise for that,” ASX chief information officer Tim Whitely said in a statement. “Our analysis showed that the technical issue related to an error in a data file and we did not uncover evidence of malicious activity from an external or internal source.”
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index is heading for a 6.3% gain this year, while New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 is on track for a 9.6% increase.
Meanwhile, Jarden is lobbying for a trans-Tasman share trading index to help improve liquidity on both sides of the Tasman, according to a report in The Australian’s DataRoom column.
That comes as investors brace themselves for a grinchy Christmas if the usual Santa rally into the end of the year doesn’t emerge.
The last rally?
Stocks in the US gained on Friday after the Federal Reserve’s favoured inflation measure – the personal consumption expenditures price index – increased at a slower pace as economists predicted.
Investors had been unnerved by the Fed’s pared back track for interest rate cuts in 2025, and as Washington’s ritualistic showdown over a potential shutdown was exacerbated by pressure from Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump.
The shutdown was averted with a stopgap spending measure and signed into law by President Joe Biden over the weekend.
The greenback gave up ground on the US inflation figures, with the kiwi rise to 56.63 US cents at 7am in Auckland from 56.24 cents on Friday.
Trump took to Truth Social over the weekend to exert pressure over Panama Canal, accusing Panama of charging excessive fees to use the maritime passage, and saying the US has a vested interest in its secure, efficient and reliable operation.
Meanwhile, Google-parent Alphabet is under increasing regulatory pressure, with the Japan Fair Trade Commission expected to issue a cease and desist order over the search engine giant’s monopolistic practices, Nikkei Asia reported on Sunday.
That comes after Google proposed to a US court that an appropriate fix to its market power is looser contracts to firms such as Apple and Samsung, whose devices default to Google’s search engine.
Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Marcus Reubenstein on Unsplash.
