Markets were subdued on both sides of the Atlantic as central banks in Europe cut key interest rates in line with expectations, ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy review next week.
Wall Street’s S&P 500 slipped 0.2% at 7am in Auckland, while France’s CAC 40 was largely unchanged and Germany’s DAX increased 0.1% following interest rate cuts by the pan-European, Swiss and Danish central banks. Gold prices slipped 1.7%, and Brent crude oil edged up 0.1%. Bitcoin was largely unchanged as Blackrock recommended interested investors allocate up to 2% of their portfolio in the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.
The kiwi dollar slipped to 55.08 euro cents at 7am in Auckland from 55.27 cents at 5pm yesterday, and declined to 57.84 US cents from 58.06 cents.
That’s ahead of the Fed’s final policy review of the year next week, which is expected to deliver another quarter-point cut to the fed funds rate after the latest US producer price data met analysts' forecasts.
"The US data reinforced market expectations that the Fed would cut its policy rate by 25 basis points next week, which is fully priced, and a strong consensus has been building that policy will pause in January, and with a much slower pace of easing next year, with about three 25 basis points rate cuts spread over 2025,” Jason Wong, senior markets strategist at Bank of New Zealand, said in a note.
Trading on Wall Street was opened by President-elect Donald Trump, who was named Time’s Person of the Year, and while overall trading was subdued, software company ServiceTitan spiked 42% in its Nasdaq debut.
Wall Street continues to attract new listings in a relatively subdued environment, with UK construction rental firm Ashtead Group this week announcing plans to shift its primary listing from London to New York.
New Zealand’s commerce minister Andrew Bayly wants to help make the NZX more attractive, today proposing changes to cut the cost of listing by making prospective financial information voluntary and aligning climate disclosure obligations to Australia's regime.
Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange Group sold its 4.9% stake in Euroclear for 455 million euros to the New South Wales state government’s financial management partner TCorp.
Locally, Statistics New Zealand will release travel and migration figures for October and the BNZ-Business NZ performance of manufacturing index is due for release, while Westpac holds its annual meeting across the Tasman, and waste management firm WasteCo Group is holding a special meeting for shareholders to vote on whether to approve issuing a $15 million convertible note to property developer Simon Herbert’s Empire Waste Technology entity.
Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image by Yucel Moran on Unsplash.