On Thursday, Stats NZ releases June quarter GDP data, which economists expect to show the economy contracted after gains in the previous two quarters.<\/p>\n
Lister said the GDP data was likely to be ugly.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019ve just got to remember that this is for the June quarter and we are in September now, and we\u2019ve seen data like today\u2019s electronic card transactions, which was halfway decent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of those forward-looking indicators are actually telling us that things have turned a corner and we\u2019re starting to see those early signs of an uplift.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the markets will look past an ugly GDP report and will focus more on some of those more positive signs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to remind ourselves that that was probably the weakest point and to do our best to focus on some of those more up-to-the-minute indicators that do look a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is also the US Federal Reserve\u2019s interest rate decision on the same day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the big event for international markets, so that\u2019s what everyone is looking toward, and I think that will be a positive driver for investors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Fed has not cut interest rates this year, unlike many other central banks around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fed has been absolutely on the sidelines, so it\u2019s quite a big deal that they resume that rate cutting cycle next week, which is what people are expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the movements, Tower gained 2.5c to $1.75 after announcing an upgrade to its earnings forecasts for 2025.<\/p>\n
The insurer now expects its underlying net profit to be in a range of $100m to $110m, provided that no large events are recorded this month, up from a previous guidance of $70m-$80m.<\/p>\n
Out-of-favour Spark, which unveiled a five-year strategy called SPK-30 on Thursday, fell 7c or 2.9% to $2.37.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks good on PowerPoint, but investors will want to see results and they will want to see progress \u2013 they don\u2019t get a free pass just for the flashy strategy document,\u201d Lister said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take some time for Spark\u2019s management team to win back the credibility that they\u2019ve eroded in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Takeover target Vital ended up 4.5c or 11.7% at 43c after the mobile radio networks company announced that Tait International\u2019s bid had gone unconditional upon reaching over 90% in acceptances.<\/p>\n
Dual-listed infrastructure services provider Ventia Services gained 12c to $5.68 after announcing that it had extended its facility management agreement with the City of Sydney over two years.<\/p>\n
Robotics firm Scott Technology continued to enjoy a re-rating \u2013 gaining 10c to $2.35 after laying out its strategic goals to the market Thursday.<\/p>\n
Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets, the primary sector and energy. He joined the Herald in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Thursday, Stats NZ releases June quarter GDP data, which economists expect to show the economy contracted after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[19256,806,9218,138,3043,651,3105,14134,8127,8532,14051,9639,71,321,12814,225,220,111,139,1536,69,19257,10665,1125,19255,643,6382,3040,4518,80],"class_list":["post-17431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-allimportant","tag-as","tag-before","tag-business","tag-call","tag-close","tag-data","tag-decision","tag-end","tag-ended","tag-federal","tag-flat","tag-from","tag-investors","tag-looms","tag-market","tag-markets","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-rate","tag-reserve","tag-sharemarket","tag-sidelines","tag-stocks","tag-took","tag-us","tag-weeks","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}