“You’re obviously seeing investors rotate out of some of those high-flying tech and AI stocks that have done so well for such a long time,” Lister said.
“There seems to be a bit of a rotation out of those companies into other parts of the market. Because those businesses are so dominant, as people look to rebalance and go into other sectors, that’s always going to weigh on sentiment headline indices.”
Fonterra began the day by announcing it would cut its 2026 farmgate milk price forecast to a midpoint of $9.00 per kilogram of milk solids, from $9.50/kg.
Lister said it wasn’t long ago that they had a midpoint forecast of $10.
“It’s not the end of the world. If you look over the last 25 years, that would still be the third highest, so it’s far from a disaster.”
Units in the Fonterra Shareholders’ Fund lifted 1.52% or 12c per unit to $8.34 after 102,263 shares changed hands worth $849,324.84.
Elsewhere, Infratil’s share price fell for another day, down 1.83% or 20c to $10.70 on turnover worth $15.1m.
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare also had another negative day, down 0.91% or 34c to $36.91.
Freightways and Mainfreight both contributed positively, with Freightways lifting 0.64% or 9c to $14.20, while Mainfreight lifted 0.59% or 40c to $67.75.
“Freightways is one of your stereotypical cyclical stocks, and one that’s quite leveraged to the state of the economy. If the economy’s going to recover, then Freightways is going to be in a better space.”
Lister said the latest gross domestic product (GDP) update was good, and is another piece of evidence that the next likely move from the Reserve Bank will be to lift the Official Cash Rate.
“The market is still right now pricing in close to two hikes in 2026, which is a big turnaround from where they were at before.
“I think the market strongly believes that the bottom is behind us, the economy is recovering, and that momentum will continue into 2026.”
International news
Wall Street stocks were mixed early on Wednesday (US time) as markets weighed lingering questions about lofty equity valuations and monetary policy against seasonal trading dynamics.
December is usually a strong month for stocks, but equities have in recent days grappled with worries over huge gains by artificial intelligence stocks and concerns that the Federal Reserve won’t cut interest rates again soon.
Those worries were compounded on Wednesday by a report that private capital group Blue Owl had pulled out of market giant Oracle’s US$10 billion data centre, putting the project in doubt.
Oracle plunged more than 5% on Wednesday, while Broadcom and other sector heavyweights, including Nvidia, Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices, also tumbled.
The Nasdaq on Wall Street dived 1.8% and the broader S&P 500 was off more than 1%.
– Additional reporting AFP
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
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