So Apple (AAPL) decided to give back some of its nearly $US100 billion cash hoard in the form of a (paltry) dividend and a share buyback – at 1.8% yield, its not that exciting. Is APPL running out of ideas or just being prudent with its capital management?
Lets check out what happened in detail before the open of the local markets – remember to read Trading Week to always put this daily noise in context, which will be updated tomorrow, including my trading ideas for the week coming.
Europe began with a flat session, with UK FTSE not moving at 5961, the German DAX also flat at 7154 points. Both bourses are sitting around their resistance levels, not doing much – possibly waiting for a catalyst to move them higher. Will the PMI’s later this week be it?
The Euro (EUR/USD) was also flat against the USD to remain at 1.323, in a mixed session for the reserve currency, the USD Index 0.3% lower at 79.5 points. The AUD remains slightly above 1.06 against the USD.
Just a reminder, but not a recommendation, an Australian investor can go long the USD to hedge a falling AUD, using the Betashare ETF – code:USD. I regularly use this as a simple hedging tool in my super fund.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the US bourses were more bullish, probably on the AAPL dividend result, with the S&P500 up 0.4% at 1409 points as the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished flat at 13,239 points.
On to the important debt markets, where US 10 year T-Notes were sold off again, yields lifting to 2.38%, with German bonds (bunds) staying flat at 2.06% yield. For reference, Aussie 10 year bonds were sold off sharply, yields slipping to 4.31% – continuing above the cash rate (at 4.25%)
To commodities, where energies were mixed as WTI crude put on nearly $2 a barrel to $107USD, whilst Brent crude fell over $2 to $123.5USD per barrel. This is not a one-off divergence, the oil futures have done this before, so it bears watching.
Gold (in USD) fell again throughout the London session, down below $1655USD an ounce, before recovering in NYMEX trade to end the day slightly up at $1663USD per ounce.
On these relatively good leads the S&P/ASX200 index futures point to a higher open, up around 5 points to probably open around 4295 or so. Will we crack 4300 points again today?
My Trading Day post will cover the Asian market session and the “ASX8” stocks after the close in the afternoon and I’ll endeavour to do some more in depth analysis, because moves are afoot and opportunities abound as the cyclical bull market in US stocks may become a bear market rally in Australian stocks.
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