Market Highlights: Reddit rallies Wall Street as ASX opens all anxious

ASX SPI Futures pointing a little lower
Tech leads Wall street highs; Reddit rakes it in
Oil prices down, iron ore looking good

At 8.30am in Sydney the ASX Futures (SPI) index was pointing to a 0.2% fall, despite Wall Street wins overnight.

On Thursday, the Australian share market closed 1.12% higher at 7,781.97

The three main US indexes all clocked new record highs after EU markets did too.

The Bank of England (BoE) and the Swiss central bank (the SNB) continued with the emerging dovish interest rate tones – the BoE holding and the SNB cutting.

The European Stoxx 600 set a new record close and all sectors ended higher.

A few hours later in New York, lower initial jobless claims continued to show a US labor market tight and aligned with the Feds own ideas of the US economy.

The S&P 500 closed up 0.3%.

The Nasdaq ended up 0.2%.

And the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to play a good game of catch up, rising 0.7%.

The headline act in New York on Thursday belonged to the website/budding social media giant Reddit.

Reddit listed on the NYSE and ended the first day of trading a cool 40% ahead.

Elsewhere mega tech members Meta, Microsoft and Amazon all found 1%. In contrast to Apple which fell over – but not as badly as its App Store rap, which is in legal jeopardy for being a bit of a monopoly. Down just 4%.

Just off the mega main street, Micron Tech stock leapt 15% on decent earnings and a little enthusiasm for the entire semiconductor gig. Big lads Taiwan Semiconductor rose 2.5%. Broadcom 6%. Nvidia and Intel added 1%.

Of the 11 S&P500 sectors Industrials and Financials led. Utilities did not.

Retail bellwether Nike is expected to report results after market close.

At 8am in Sydenham, crypto was down 2.5%.

Commodities overnight

Gold gained 1.1%. That’s a record.

Prices for 63.5%Fe iron ore in China’s port of Tianjin were higher than US$108 per tonne, a really good comeback from last week’s 9-month low suggesting hopes of some demand recovery in Chinese are afoot.

Silver lost 0.7%.

Copper added 0.3%.

Oil lost 0.4%

Three ASX stocks we’re watching on Friday

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (FPH:ASX)

FPH has lifted its full year guidance after what MD Lewis Gradon says has been solid demand for its 2H hospital consumables product portfolio “towards the upper end of our expectations from November.”

Now, assuming a NZ:US exchange rate of approximately 61 cents for the balance of the financial year, FPH expects full year operating revenue to be approximately $1.73bn, previously $1.7bn and underlying profit after tax (excluding any fair value changes), to be in the range of approximately $260m to $265m from $250 to $260m.

Swift Media (ASX:SW1)

SW1 says it’s signed a bunch of subscription renewal agreements, network infrastructure upgrades and room expansions over Q3, with subscription renewals for periods ranges from 6 to 12 months and with upgrades and site expansion to be delivered by the end of Q4 FY24.

The contracts came from Mining and Oil and Gas companies like Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) Shell, AngloGold Ashanti and the like. The company calls the aggregate revenue from the contracts “material.”

Raiden Resources (ASX:RDN)

Infill soil sampling program has confirmed previously defined lithium anomalies on Mt Sholl project1, says Raiden Resources (ASX:RDN).

The program has delineated two high value lithium targets, with a peak soil value of 188ppm lithium (405 ppm Li2O). The lithium in soil trends cover a strike length of 3.5km in North central part of tenement and 2.5km in the South-eastern section.

MD Dusko Ljubojevic says the results will allow for a more focused follow up campaign, to define potential targets with further mapping and sampling ahead.