ASX Large Caps: Energy lifts the ASX 200 as focus now turns to Xi-Putin meeting

The ASX 200 regains yesterday’s losses as Energy stocks lift the bourse
Aussie unemployment rate inches higher
Xi-Putin meeting in focus

Energy stocks led the ASX higher today as the benchmark index recovered some of yesterday’s losses.

At the close of Thursday, the benchmark ASX 200 index was up by 0.20%, with the Energy sector gaining almost 4%.

Oil prices gained 1-2% as China begins to ease some of its COVID lockdowns.

The city of Chengdu is reportedly lifting its lockdown today as a recent outbreak came under control.

Another welcome news out of China is that the Chinese central bank (POBC) will provide more than 200 billion yuan (US$28.7 billion) in special funds to commercial banks to boost loans to companies – the latest effort by the government to support the economy.

Oil prices were also lifted after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expected growth in oil demand to resume strongly in 2023.

The IEA has cut its forecast for demand growth for 2022 by 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2 million bpd, but predicts that demand will grow to 2.1 million bpd in 2023.

Most energy stocks rose today, with Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS), Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) and Santos (ASX:STO) leading the way.

Meanwhile, the Australian employment rate has inched higher from 3.4% in July to 3.5% in August – according to data released by the ABS today. In raw figures, the number of formally unemployed people increased by 13,400 to 487,700.

Whether it will be enough to slow down the pace of RBA rate hikes come October 4th remains to be seen.

“After hiking rates by 50bps, markets are now pricing in a 25bps hike next month although as we’ve seen so often this year, that could quickly change with the data,” says OANDA analyst, Craig Erlam.

Looking ahead, the Xi-Putin meeting is now only hours away. The meeting will be closely watched especially now that Russia has lost ground in the Ukraine, and the Ukrainian president has vowed to take back Crimea from Russian hands – potentially prolonging the already 7-month old war.

On the economics front, lots of important data points are due out tonight including: US retail sales, US industrial production, US jobless claim, and the EU trade balance.

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
CRN	Coronado Global Res	1.85	9%	6,500,853	$2,841,589,072
NHC	New Hope Corporation	5.815	6%	3,369,746	$4,570,226,416
WHC	Whitehaven Coal	8.87	5%	8,265,971	$8,109,183,609
WDS	Woodside Energy	33.7	4%	5,744,438	$61,405,567,594
CXL	Calix Limited	7.38	4%	257,211	$1,145,756,762
WOR	Worley Limited	14.39	4%	1,010,551	$7,263,966,552
BPT	Beach Energy Limited	1.7075	3%	6,295,118	$3,764,200,532
SGR	The Star Ent Grp	2.77	3%	3,573,890	$2,551,398,083
ANZ	ANZ Banking Grp Ltd	23.7	3%	8,932,637	$68,618,750,085
STO	Santos Ltd	7.935	3%	10,442,847	$25,803,407,301
PSI	Psc Insurance Ltd	5.04	3%	460,589	$1,722,609,811
SYR	Syrah Resources	1.88	3%	2,493,209	$1,222,919,376
BGP	Briscoe Group	5.13	3%	10	$1,108,775,018

Coals producers Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN) was up 9% and New Hope (ASX:NHC) was up 6% amid the positive sentiment on energy stocks.

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
LKE	Lake Resources	0.9325	-12%	49,455,493	$1,473,372,132
PPH	Pushpay Holdings Ltd	0.9675	-10%	2,584,862	$1,226,443,498
S32	South32 Limited	4	-7%	38,009,323	$19,994,824,443
NAN	Nanosonics Limited	3.77	-6%	661,888	$1,210,811,223
CEN	Contact Energy Ltd	6.95	-5%	8,218	$1,820,609,582
CXO	Core Lithium	1.51	-5%	27,167,286	$2,770,826,593
DMP	Domino Pizza Enterpr	62.81	-5%	413,578	$5,709,612,390
FBU	Fletcher Building	4.71	-4%	1,004,560	$3,860,746,415
SYA	Sayona Mining Ltd	0.325	-4%	144,548,700	$2,823,470,224
SPK	Spark New Zealand	4.55	-4%	1,362,983	$8,890,040,506
INR	Ioneer Ltd	0.6625	-4%	7,617,807	$1,447,712,512
EVT	Event Hospitality	13	-4%	144,563	$2,176,139,534
MCY	Mercury NZ Limited	5.25	-4%	10,596	$7,532,218,389
HLS	Healius	3.48	-4%	5,048,734	$2,096,502,410
ZIM	Zimplats Holding Ltd	23.87	-3%	4,281	$2,658,649,930

After being down 15% yesterday, Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) dropped another 12% today. On Wednesday, the company announced a project dispute at its Kachi Pilot plant. The dispute is over a certain earn-in milestones from its partner on the project.