Market Update & Important Indicators:
President Donald Trump's weekend threats to leave Canada out of the new North American Free Trade Agreement weighed on European and Asian stocks Monday. Some investors were looking at the Nafta renegotiation as a bellwether for how far the U.S. is willing to take its trade spat with China. U.S. markets were closed for Labor Day. Concerns about a global trade conflict have dented equity markets in Europe and Asia over the past few months, but also helped U.S. stocks to reach record highs, boosted by risk-averse money. The U.S. employment report for August, due Friday, will give further clues on the strength of the U.S. economy. The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies, rose 0.1%. Inflows into U.S. assets, however, have hurt emerging-market countries that are highly dependent on the dollar and foreign finance, chiefly Turkey and Argentina. Money managers are concerned about these issues spreading further. The US gold price edged slightly higher, adding less than 0.1% to record 1,200.90 US$/oz.
Europe's main stock gauge finished little changed, with analysts citing uncertainty over global trade tensions. The Stoxx Europe 600 closed up by less than 0.1% at 382.51, after Friday's 0.8% drop that left it down 2.4% for August. The pan-European gauge is showing a decline of nearly 2% for the year to date. Germany's DAX 30 shed 0.1% to end at 12,346.41, while France's CAC 40 tacked on 0.1% to 5,413.80. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 1% to end at 7,504.60, getting a lift from the pound's tumble, which came as a key European Union official criticized Britain's Brexit plan.
Asian stock markets started September lower, as trade-war fears increased after the U.S. and Canada missed a deal deadline set for Friday and uncertainty rose about escalating tariffs between the U.S. and China. Japan's Nikkei closed down 0.7% even with the yen little changed from Friday's end-of-day levels in Tokyo. Steel and energy names were among the biggest laggards, with crude explorer Inpex 1605 and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal both down more than 1%. The Shanghai Composite finished down 0.2%, and the Shenzhen Composite was also off 0.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 0.6%, as South Korea's Kospi slipped 0.7%.
Australian stocks held up better that most in the region throughout today's trading, though a late drop left the S&P/ASX 200 at session lows. It closed down 0.1% at 6310.9, a third-straight decline following Wednesday's latest 10-and-a-half-year closing high. Materials gave up initial gains to finish with a 0.4% decline while utilities shed 0.7%. But health care jumped 0.8% to another record; that segment of the index is now up 41% this year. Individually, Northern Star surged 17% in its first action after saying Thursday it would pay US$260 million for an Alaskan gold mine and sell stock to help fund the deal. It's the biggest gain since December 2014.
Base metal prices were mixed overnight on the London Metal Exchange. Aluminium lost 1.7% to 2,066/t, as tin fell 0.8% to close at 18,895/t. The 3-month copper contract slipped 0.4% to 5,945/t. Leading gains were lead, up 2.3% to 2,104/t. Zinc increased marginally by 0.3% to close at 2,470/t.
Recent Contacts & Presentations:
Dimerix (DXB), Aspire Mining (AKM), Austal Limited (ASB), Macmahon Holdings Limited (MAH), Nickle Mines Limited (NIC), Carnarvon Petroleum Limited (CVN), Prodigy Gold (PRX), Ausdrill Ltd (ASL), Bionomics Ltd (BNO), Gold Road Resources (GOR), Encounter Resources Ltd. (ENR), OZ Minerals Limited (OZL), Melbana Energy (MAY), Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (BOT), Novo Litio (NLI), Classic Minerals (CLZ), OZ Minerals (OZL), Saturn Metals (STN), Antipa Minerals (AZY), SRG Ltd (SRG) Bowen Coking Coal (BCB), Birimian (BGS), Breaker Resources (BRB), Galena Mining (G1A), Valmec (VMX),Bryah Resources (BYH), Calima Energy (CE1) Genesis Minerals (GMD), Agrimin (AMN), Magnetic Resources (MAU), Core Exploration (CXO), Marindi Metals (MZN), MOD Resources (MOD), Santos (STO), Adriatic Metals (ADT) Bio–Gene Technology (BGT), Walkabout Resources (WKT), Triton Minerals (TON), Calima Energy (CE1)
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