Leading stocks Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Infratil, Ryman Healthcare, Mainfreight and Goodman NZ are reporting their latest financial results, and the Reserve Bank is meeting on Wednesday, followed the next day by the Budget.
Fonterra is likely to provide its opening forecast milk payment for next season in its quarterly update.
“The result I’m looking forward to is Mainfreight on Thursday to learn more about what is happening in the economy because of the nature of their business in global transport and logistics,” said Lister.
“The Reserve Bank’s monetary policy statement is the big one. I don’t expect any change in the official cash rate (OCR), but all eyes will be on its forecasting.
“The market is expecting three OCR hikes this year and two more early next year. That’s quite an aggressive OCR path, and we’ll see what the Reserve Bank thinks.
“I don’t envy them because of where the inflation forecasts take them, but they have to come up with some scenarios,” Lister said.
ASB Bank said the Budget would be closely watched, given it is an election year. “We expect the script to remain on repairing fiscal buffers via consolidation, but focus will be given to how quickly this can be achieved against the fluid global backdrop.”
The US markets, closed overnight for Memorial Day, remained positive on the prospect of a peace deal in the Middle East and a fall in oil prices to under US$100 (NZ$170.26) a barrel. Brent Crude oil was trading at US$97.79, down 5.5%.
Over the weekend (NZ time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a new high after rising 0.58% to 50,579.7 points; the S&P 500 was up 0.37% to 7,473.47; and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.19% to 26,343.97.
Across the Tasman, the S&P/ASX 200 Index had increased 0.41% to 8691.40 points at 6pm NZ time.
Local stocks
Back home, market leader Fisher & Paykel Healthcare was down 44c to $33.66 ahead of its full-year result, and Mainfreight was up 36c to $58.49.
Auckland International Airport increased 15c or 1.85% to $8.27; Contact Energy gained 10c to $9.45 on trade worth $28.4m; Infratil added 8c to $15.98; and Scales Corp was up 11c or 1.86% to $6.02.
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels NZ increased 12c or 3.95% to $3.16; Metro Performance Glass rose 5c or 5% to $1.05; Scott Technology gained 6c or 2.56% to $2.40; and Blackpearl Group rallied 1.5c or 2.29% to 67c.
Summerset was down 17c or 2.21% to $7.53; Channel Infrastructure declined 9c or 2.27% to $3.24; Gentrack fell 29c or 7.25% to $3.71; Hallenstein Glasson decreased 15c to $9.85; and The Warehouse shed 1.5c or 2.29% to 64c.
In the property sector, Kiwi was down 2c, or 2.13%, to 92c, while Property for Industry eased 4c to $2.40.
Cancer diagnostics company Pacific Edge, up 1c or 3.7% to 28c, reported a 45% fall in revenue to $13.6m and a loss of $35.8m for the 12 months ending March.
The lower revenue reflected the loss of US Medicare funding coverage and continued pressure on US Cxbladder test volumes. Total laboratory throughput was down 16.3% to 24,190 tests.
Pacific Edge told the market that the draft Medicare local coverage determination, expected to be final and effective by the end of the year, substantially reduced the uncertainty that has weighed on test volumes and financial performance.
South Port NZ was up 17c or 1.93% to $9 after appointing director Derek Nind as chief executive to replace Nigel Gear, who steps down at the end of the month. Nind was formerly chief executive of Wellington’s CentrePort and a management executive at Lyttelton Port Company.
Radius Residential Care, up 0.005c to 40.5c, has established a lending syndicate with ASB Bank and Bank of China (NZ) and increased its facility limits to $30m to fund the purchase of the Wellington Karori care home and a new development at Belfast, Christchurch.
Transport technology firm Eroad was down 8c or 8% to 92c after reporting steady full-year revenue of $195.23m and a loss of $161.5m. Eroad began a transformation programme mid-year to restore performance.
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