Overseas Market Report – Stocks Close High After Yellen Speech
Stocks pared early losses to trade mixed on Tuesday morning as oil fell and ahead of a speech from Fed Chair Janet Yellen. Stocks rose after Yellen announced that the Fed needed to proceed cautiously on raising interest rates given fears about the domestic and global economies.
Home prices rose 5.4% in January compared to January 2015 levels according to the Case-Shiller Home Price Index. That's an acceleration from the 5.3% year-over-year gain seen in December.
The Conference Board said this morning that consumer confidence rose in March. The reading of 96.2 was higher than the 94.0 seen in February and above the 94.2 expected by economists.
At the closing bell the Dow was up 0.6%, the S&P 500 was up 0.9% while the Nasdaq rose 1.7%.
Shares of Yahoo (YHOO) were up over 2% after the firm set an April 11th deadline for bids for all or parts of its business.
For Australian ADRs listed on the NYSE, BHP Billiton rose 5 cents (0.19%) to $25.74, ResMed gained 29 cents (0.52%) to $56.26, Telstra Corporation gained 30 cents (1.52%) to $20.10, Spark New Zealand rose 7 cents (0.59%) to $12.01 and Westpac declined 34 cents (-1.45%) to $23.11.
At 8.15 AM (AEDT), the 10-year Treasury note yield was 1.80% and the 5-year yield was 1.27%.
European markets were mixed yesterday. The FTSE 100 was down 0.01%, the Paris CAC was up 0.9% while Germany's DAX rose 0.4%. India's Sensex fell 0.3%.
Asian shares were mostly lower. The Shanghai Composite dropped 1.3%, the Nikkei 225 was off 0.2% while the Hang Seng rose 0.1%.
Australian Market Report- Local Markets Expected To Open Higher
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 33 points higher at 5,026.00.
Tuesday 29 March – close. The Australian market experienced a dismal day, weighed down by heavy losses from the big banks and health care stocks, dragging the ASX index to the key 5,000-point mark. All sectors finished lower, with health care being the worst performer. The Australian dollar depreciated against the green back but experienced mixed results against other major currencies.
In This Issue
Carsales.com Limited (CAR)
Carsales.com announced that it has acquired a controlling shareholding in Chileautos, the number one automotive classifieds website in Chile. Through this transaction, the Company acquired an 83% stake in Chileautos, with the existing owners retaining the remaining 17% stake. The Company's initial investment was US$15m, funded from existing cash reserves and existing syndicated debt facilities. The Company also retains an option to purchase the remaining 17% stake in Chileautos at its election at any time during the next 4 years. This investment is expected to make a positive contribution to EBITDA, albeit not material and is expected to be EPS accretive to the Company shareholders after the first year of ownership. CAR lost 33 cents to $11.61.
Medibank Private Limited (MPL)
Medibank Private announced that Craig Drummond had been appointed the Company's MD and CEO, effective 4 July 2016. David Koczkar, the Company's Chief Operating Officer will serve as acting CEO from 1 April 2016, when current MD and CEO George Savvides retires. Mr Drummond was most recently Group Executive, Finance and Strategy of National Australia Bank (NAB). Before joining NAB, he was CEO of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Australia. He was in various roles over this period rising to be CEO of Goldman Sachs in Australia from 2007 to 2009. Craig graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from The University of Melbourne in 1981. He completed the Advanced Management Program at Wharton University in 2001. Craig is a Senior Fellow of FINSIA and a Chartered Accountant. MPL added 1 cent to $2.85.
Recent Contacts & Presentations
Troy Resources (TRY), Medusa Mining (MML), Red 5 (RED), OBJ (OBJ), Sino Gas & Energy Holdings (SEH), Ausdrill (ASL), Danakali (DNK), Matrix (MCE), OBJ Limited (OBJ), Tox Free Solutions (TOX), Energia Minerals (EMX), Berkeley Energia (BKY) , Finders Resources (FND), 4DS Memory Ltd (4DS) , Bionomics Ltd (BNO), Resolute Mining (RSG), Avanco Resources (AVB), Rift Valley Resources (RVY), Kilbaran Resources (KNL), Pantoro (PNR)
