• ASX extends gains to 4th straight day
  • Iron ore stocks fall, Tech stocks rise
  • Earning season gets underway with a trickle of ASX companies reporting today

 

The ASX 200 extended gains for a fourth consecutive day, up by 0.80% on Monday despite a tumble in iron ore stocks.

Iron ore prices fell today after China pledged to tighten supervision of iron ore pricing following the recent surge.

In a statement issued on Sunday, China’s National Development and Reform Commission said it will “pay close attention” to movements in the iron ore market.

Specifically, the Commission said it will “severely crack down on illegal activities such as fabricating and disseminating information on prices increases, hoarding and price gouging, so as to effectively ensure the smooth operation of the iron ore market.”

Authorities there are also seeking to bolster their influence over iron ore pricing as a new state-owned company called China Mineral Resources Group is poised to become the world’s biggest iron ore buyer.

The company is set to buy iron ore in international markets on behalf of about 20 of the largest Chinese steelmakers.

Oil prices meanwhile are dropping for the first time in 7 days, with Brent trading at US$84.65.

The oil market is buoyant as traders look to China’s reopening while other parts of the global economy slow.

Back home, the monthly inflation gauge in Australia show that prices have eased to a four-month low of +0.2% in December from November.

On a year-on-year basis however, this measure is still at a +7.3% rate, but the lower month-on-month result should give the RBA some comfort going into February’s meeting.

On the ASX, all 11 sectors were in the green today with Tech and Energy stocks leading the way.

Earnings season got underway with Super Retail Group (ASX:SUL) surging by 7% after reporting H1 normalised profit before tax (PBT) of between $212 million to $218 million.

SUL owns brands such as owns Supercheap Auto, Rebel, BCF and Macpac.

It should be an interesting next few weeks as other ASX companies report their first half earnings.

On Friday, Wall Street received some disappointing Q4 results from its major banks as CEOs warned of a recession ahead.

We don’t know the future,” said JP Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon. “There are all these geopolitical uncertainties which are real, and we have our eyes focused on it. They may go away or they may not.”

Looking ahead, this week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) opens in Davos, Switzerland later today.

The forum is taking place at a time when the world economy is reeling from high inflation, an energy crisis and a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in China.

“Economic, environmental, social and geopolitical crises are converging and conflating, creating an extremely versatile and uncertain future,” WEF founder Klaus Schwab said.

 

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Security Description Last % Volume MktCap
MP1 Megaport Limited 7.39 8.04 924,019 $1,081,849,387
SUL Super Ret Rep Ltd 12.35 7.72 1,398,402 $2,587,971,690
360 Life360 Inc. 5.82 7.38 1,172,738 $1,056,028,789
XRO Xero Ltd 74.40 4.68 286,045 $10,673,336,663
DHG Domain Holdings Aus 3.13 4.33 633,197 $1,894,971,459
WTC Wisetech Global Ltd 53.98 3.99 257,057 $16,976,328,815
OBL Omni Bridgeway Ltd 4.26 3.90 103,407 $1,144,283,248
NHC New Hope 6.46 3.78 3,761,239 $5,487,716,147
NWL Netwealth Group 13.67 3.72 123,385 $3,214,406,923
SEK Seek Limited 24.05 3.66 845,481 $8,229,508,408
KAR Karoon Energy Ltd 2.27 3.65 1,254,943 $1,232,276,550
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Xero (ASX:XRO) was the one of the best large caps for the day, up almost 5% on no specific news.

Job and property listing stocks Seek (ASX:SEK) and REA Group (ASX:REA) are also advancing on sentiment.

Megaport (ASX:MP1) meanwhile rose 8% on no specific announcements.

 

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Security Description Last % Volume MktCap
CXO Core Lithium 1.06 -6.39 21,257,464 $2,096,213,932
ARU Arafura Rare Earths 0.50 -4.76 8,993,341 $1,071,372,460
LTR Liontown Resources 1.49 -4.33 7,161,979 $3,426,439,146
MND Monadelphous Group 12.93 -2.89 211,776 $1,278,231,001
FMG Fortescue Metals Grp 22.24 -2.46 5,048,608 $70,200,400,130
DXS Dexus 7.83 -2.43 3,334,887 $8,626,033,273
MAQ Macquarie Telecom 59.55 -2.35 2,424 $1,315,050,591
CIA Champion Iron Ltd 7.50 -2.34 1,401,713 $3,972,043,208
CPU Computershare Ltd 23.54 -2.32 1,746,328 $14,549,876,998
PSI Psc Insurance Ltd 4.90 -2.10 54,799 $1,770,713,030
DTL Data#3 Limited 6.71 -1.90 67,425 $1,057,458,419
LKE Lake Resources 0.81 -1.82 3,889,850 $1,148,128,200
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Lithum stocks Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) and Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) sold off around 5-6%.

Iron ore play Fortescue (ASX:FMG) also slipped 3%.

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