“The nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve chair and the partial shutdown of the US government has added to the nervousness,” Lister said.
“The reversal in gold and silver and crypto certainly spooked investors. And we have 120 companies on the S&P 500 reporting this week including Amazon and Alphabet (owner of Google).”
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.36% to 48,892.47 points; S&P 500 decreased 0.43% to 6939.03; and Nasdaq Composite declined 0.94% to 23,461.82 over the weekend NZ time.
President Donald Trump’s nomination of Warsh is seen as being hawkish towards interest rates. A former Fed governor, Warsh is viewed as less inclined toward aggressive rate cuts and more focused on containing inflation, US commentators said.
Gold plummets
The gold price has fallen from a high of US$5450 to $4726.5, silver from $117.63 to $81.9, and bitcoin from $96,151 to $76,012. The gold and silver prices suffered their biggest one-day drop since 1980.
Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had declined 1.04% to 8776.9 points at 6pm NZ time, and, further afield, the Japanese Nikkei 225 was down 0.57% to 53,016.77 and the Hong Kong Hang Seng had fallen 2.4% to 26,730.78.
At home, Contact Energy gained 13c to $9.48; Auckland International Airport was up 13c to $8.39 on trade worth $11.45m; Summerset rebounded 13c to $11.70; and Ebos Group collected 17c to $25.88.
Colonial Motor improved 13c to $8.50; and Blackpearl Group increased 5c or 4.5% to $1.16.
KMD Brands, down 1c or 3.64% to 26.5c, reported a 7.9% increase in sales for the five months ending December 25, with Rip Curl up 5.6%, Kathmandu gaining 12.9% and Oboz up 4.5%.
For the 23 weeks ending January 4, Kathmandu same-store sales rose 12.7% and Rip Curl was up 1.7%. KMD expects first-half operating earnings (ebitda) of $8m-$11m compared with the previous first half $3.9m.
Net debt at the end of January was expected to be $85m-$90m compared with $76.2m because of the weakening NZ dollar.
Lister said KMD’s update was slightly better than expected but it was a down day on the market and its share price weakened nonetheless.
Other retailers Briscoe Group decreased 7c to $4.92, and Hallenstein Glasson was down 2c to $9.88.
Freightways buys Aussie firm
Freightways, decreasing 25c to $14.35, has completed the $81m purchase of Victorian-based VT Freight Express and is expanding its presence in the Australian express delivery market.
In the property sector, Goodman Trust decreased 3c to $1.905, and Stride was down 2.5c or 1.98% to $1.24.
Other decliners were Mainfreight down 65c to $66.50; Gentrack decreasing 34c or 4.46% to $7.29; Port of Tauranga easing 10c to $7.91; Tourism Holdings shedding 6c or 2.33% to $2.51; SkyCity losing 1.5c to 91c; and Vulcan Steel down 13c to $8.01.
AFT Pharmaceuticals fell 16c or 4.24% to $3.61; Vista Group decreased 6c or 3.23% to $1.80; Delegat Group was down 8c or 1.79% to $4.40; NZX shed 4c or 2.66% to $1.465; and Minerals Exploration declined 1.5c or 5.45% to 26c.
Fast-track news
Manuka Resources shed 2c or 8.7% to 21c after telling the market it was expecting the fast-track environmental consents decision for its vanadium concentrate extraction project off the coast of Taranaki on March 18.
The company said in its quarterly report that the project was forecast to generate $854m export revenue a year, representing more than 50% of the targeted increase in mineral exports and making it one of the country’s top 12 exporters.
TradeWindow was down 1c or 3.85% to 25.9c after launching a share purchase plan to raise $1m at 25c a share. The transport and logistics software firm had earlier raised $5.7m through a placement of shares.
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