• Local shares finished higher ahead of the Fed rates call tonight
  • Energy and gold stocks led
  • Binance sees massive withdrawals

 

Local shares joined Wall Street in the green, up by 0.60%, as traders await the Fed’s rates decision later tonight.

At around 2pm New York time (or 6am AEDT), Fed boss Jerome Powell will face the press and reveal FOMC’s decision.

After yesterday’s soft inflation numbers, the market expects Powell to hand down a dovish 50bp increase.

Matt Simpson, Senior Market Analyst at City Index, warns that investors should remain cautious.

“Investors may be forced to reconsider their positions and perhaps look to add to their long equity exposure – but I would urge caution, as the Fed may not be as dovish regarding the terminal rate that markets are pricing in, so it’s best to remain nimble,” Simpson said.

Meanwhile RBA Governor, who’s facing calls to resign, says the central bank could use its power to investigate Apple Pay.

Speaking at the 2022 AustPayNet Annual Summit, Lowe said the government’s new proposed legislation has broadened the area of coverage to include service providers, not just payment systems.

On the ASX, Energy and Tech stocks led today’s session while Financials lagged.

Gold stocks rose after bullion surged 2% on the cooling inflation report, trading now at US$1,810.70.

West African Resources (ASX:WAF) was a top gold performer today.

“Gold bulls are growing more confident the Fed will be done tightening after the February FOMC meeting,” said OANDA analyst, Edward Moya.

Australia’s biggest health insurer, Medibank (ASX:MPL) told investors that it had received formal notification from lawyers Maurice Blackburn of a class action against the company.

The complaint includes allegations that Medibank has breached the Australian Privacy Principles, and seeks compensation for individuals whose personal information was exposed as a consequence of the cybercrime.

To cryptos, where the FTX contagion has spread to the world’s biggest crypto exchange Binance.

According to data from Bloomberg and research firm Nansen, net outflows of digital tokens from Binance amounted to about $US3.7 billion in the past week, including almost $US2 billion in the last 24 hours.

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Block Inc (ASX:SQ2) rose 8% after a broker upgrade overnight. Analysts at Piper Sandler gave Block Inc (NYSE:SQ) an overweight rating and a $US93 price target, pushing the New York listed stock 7% higher.

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Endeavour Group (ASX:EDV) fell 5% after acknowledging that Woolworths (ASX:WOW) will sell 5.5% of the issued capital of Endeavour Group via a block trade at a price of $6.46 per share.

Woolworths Group CEO, Brad Banducci, said: “Our decision to reduce our stake comes after a successful transition from ownership to partnership with Endeavour Group. The proceeds will be used for strategic investments and general corporate purposes.”

The WOW share price rose around 1% on the news.

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