Australian Shares

Angus Nicholson, IG   Asian markets have followed the lead from Wall Street as we have seen strong gains in Australia and Japan.

  ANGUS NICHOLSON, IG Market Analyst Asian markets have looked past the wobble in oil prices and Chinese data yesterday to push tentatively into the green.

Angus Nicholson, IG for Chris Weston The ASX rallied up over 5200 to see its strongest close since 3 December despite volumes being 50% below their 30-day average.

by Chris Becker Ho ho hum. Except for the unexpected early release of the November personal consumption expenditure (PCE) report in the US, which showed increasing consumer spending amid zero inflationary pressures, it was same old Santa rally into the last session of the week overnight as US and European stocks surged.

From BofAML: Central banks have had a tremendous impact on financial markets in the last seven years, which is never more apparent than when looking at the world through the volatility lens.

Angus Nicholson for Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets A positive day of trade in Asia today driven by a bounce in oil prices and weakness in the US dollar.

by Chris Becker We slide into the Christmas season slowly and quietly with not much data or events for markets to react to, as US stocks put on nearly 1% overnight, while European stocks were mainly steady.

From Bloomberg comes the best of 2015 looking at next year’s markets.

From BofAML: Asset managers are struggling, with the poorest hedge fund performance relative to the risk they are taking since 2008, despite overall market volatility being only 1/4th of 2008 levels.

Evan Lucas for Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets The thematics of 2015 The energy complex – The sharp sustained collapse in oil has been the talking point in the commodities complex all year.

by Chris Becker European stocks fell out of bed overnight after the Spanish elections while US stocks recovered from the Friday “twitching” as Brent crude capped a new 10 year plus low as the Saudi’s try to work out what the hell they’re going to do in a post-oil global economy.

Angus Nicholoson for Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets Ongoing concerns about risks in the high yield debt sector and doubts over earnings into 2016 appear to have derailed US stocks on Friday.

by Chris Becker Its that time of year when volumes disappear as traders go on holiday (or caretaker mode like yours truly).

Angus Nicholoson for Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets The global macro dynamics from the beginning of a Fed rate hiking cycle are slowly playing out across the world.

From Ord Minnett: In this note, Ord Minnett analyses how the Australian market might react to the US Federal Reserve’s first step in tightening monetary policy and which stocks, sectors and themes investors should be focusing on.

From BofAML: As Fed hikes rates for the first time in 3,460 days, officially ending the era of extreme, abnormal monetary policy in the form of QE and zero rates, what do we see?

Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets Traders seem to be rejoicing at the mere certainty provided by the Federal Reserve, although I would temper that by saying we have potentially entered a new realm of increased uncertainty.

by Chris Becker The wait is over!

Angus Nicholson for Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets Markets in Asia have been following the lead from Europe and the US and relishing the bounce in oil prices. The US CPI release overnight showed core inflation climbed to 2.0% year-on-year (YoY).

by Chris Becker Market action overnight can only be characterised as rebound following weeks of weakness and is probably only short lived going into tonights long awaited FOMC meeting.

Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets I turned tactically bullish this morning, suggesting buying the ASX 200 earlier at 4904.

From Deustsche: Three months ago we wrote a report arguing the hand-wringing over recession risks was misplaced. We pegged maximum weakness for the economy as occurring back in 2013, with steady improvement since (see “It’s not 2013 anymore”, 22 Sept).

by Chris Becker With no economic events to go on overnight, and after Friday’s rout it was a mean reversion “steady as she goes” trading session overnight, absorbing Chinese financial data and the volatility in the oil market to boot.

Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets The question traders are asking today is whether the selloff in high yielding corporate credit steam will roll into something more sinister?

by Chris Becker What a week it was, and what a week to end the trading year (more or less) with the Fed set to raise rates just as China begins its multi-tier campaign to ease the Yuan as the commodities GFC rolls on with renewed pressure.