TACO
Matt Goodson, managing director of Salt Funds Management, said, “We’ve seen a number of large lines crossed in Ebos in stronger-than-normal volumes. There’s some expectation that the seller, or sellers, may have cleared their orders.”
Goodson said Wall Street traded flat before finishing strongly after Trump’s latest statement, and the local market was primed for a reasonable bounce.
Trump said he had a very productive meeting with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte and laid the groundwork for a future deal over Greenland.
“Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the tariffs (on eight EU Nato countries) that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded 1.21% to 49,077.23 points; the S&P 500 was up 1.16% to 6,875.62; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.18% to 23,224.82 – after the worst trading day on Monday for three months.
Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 index had gained 0.75% to 8849.1 points at 6pm NZ time.
Goodson said Australian employment data showed 65,200 jobs were added at the end of December, far above the forecast of 27,000, and the unemployment rate fell from 4.3% to 4.1%.
He said the market there has now increased its expectation of an interest rate rise when the Reserve Bank of Australia meets in two weeks.
Local stocks
At home, most of the blue-chip stocks that were hit on Monday recovered.
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare was up 33c to $38.73; Meridian Energy collected 14c or 2.52% to $5.69; Infratil gained 10c to $11.10; Fletcher Building increased 11c or 2.9% to $3.90; and a2 Milk rose 39c or 4.08% to $9.94 after reaching an intraday low of $9.42.
Goodson said a2 Milk competitor Danone had recalled an infant formula product in Singapore.
Auckland International Airport gained 10c to $8.36 after reporting a 2% increase in the total of passengers to 1.81m in December compared with the same month in 2024.
International passengers, including transit, were up 4% to 1.06m and domestic was steady with 744,896 passengers.
Contact Energy was up 15c to $9.35 after reporting mass market electricity and gas sales of 340GWh in December, up from 274GWh for the same month in 2024. As at January 19, South Island controlled hydro storage was 129% of mean and North Island 145%.
Genesis Energy, gaining 4c to $2.45, said in its second quarter report that hydro generation increased 21GWh to 740GWh compared with the previous corresponding period because of favourable hydrological conditions and strong plant availability.
Thermal generation was a record low for the quarter at 85GWh and for the six months ending December at 869GWh, due to strong hydro conditions. Lake levels increased from 88% of average at the end of September to 122% at the end of December.
Genesis increased its full-year operating earnings (ebitdaf) guidance to $490m-$520m, from the previous $455m-$485m.
Goodson said the upgrade in guidance wasn’t a major surprise. The lakes are full, and they don’t have to run (more expensive) geothermal generation to fulfil their contracts. The energy companies appear to be well placed for winter generation and supply.
Other gainers were Vector, up 6c to $4.90; Sky TV, adding 5c to $3.43; and Manuka Resources, rising 2.2c or 11.4% to 21.5c.
Gentrack declined 22c or 2.68% to $8; Scales Corp decreased 11c or 1.91% to $5.65; and Green Cross Health was down 2.5c or 2.17% to $1.12.
Tower was down 1c to $1.89. Goodson said Tower had been happily trading around $2 ex dividend, but has drifted back on moderate volumes on nervousness about the impact of the floods relating to claims. But it doesn’t appear that urban centres have been hit hard.
Fresh produce exporter T&G Global was up 1c to $2.36 following a 5c rise the day before after upgrading its gross profit for the 2025 financial year to $16m-$20m compared with a loss of $6.83m in the previous year on strong consumer demand.
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