A week out from Christmas and the ‘Santa rally’ is on pause as sentiment across the board appears to be risk-off.
ANZ says a ‘risk-off’ tone across markets saw commodities come under pressure.
“This week’s mixed Chinese economic data continued to weigh on sentiment across the base metals sector,” economists Kishti Sen, Brian Martin, and Daniel Hynes say in a research note today.
“This is despite reports that Chinese leaders are looking to set an annual growth target of about 5% for next year.
“They have already vowed to ‘maintain stable economic growth’ and prioritise boosting domestic consumption at the economic work conference last week. The Politburo has also vowed to adopt a moderately loose monetary policy.”
Copper dropped around 0.8% to US$8,990 ($14,187) a tonne, nickel slid 1.3% to US$15,503 a tonne, and zinc was down 0.7% at US$3,036 a tonne.
Aluminium also retreated 0.9% to US$2,543 a tonne on rising supply concerns.
Iron ore, however, strengthened as demand from the real estate sector continued upwards.
Meanwhile, traders are also on the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s final interest rate decision for the year. The expectation is that the Fed will announce its third consecutive rate cut for 2024.
The S&P/ASX 200 edged down a marginal 0.6 points to 8,313.4 points as of 10:31am AEDT. The index is 0.48% lower over the last five days, and sits 2.36% below its 52-week high.
Eight sectors were in the red including materials, which was 0.06% lower. Utilities is the best performing sector, gaining 0.21% in early trade and rebounding from its recent decline. This sector is off 0.86% for the past five days.
Four of the bottom five stocks were miners, mostly gold.
Capricorn Metals (ASX:CMM) slipped 4% to $6.60. The company announced this morning that CEO Kim Massey will retire at the end of January 2025. Current COO, Paul Criddle, will take on the top job following Massey’s exit.
Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) decreased 2.24% to $2.18 and Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) retreated 2.23% to $2.63. Meanwhile, coal producer Yancoal Australia (ASX:YAL) dipped 2.32% to $6.33.
Uranium miner Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) was the outlier, advancing 1.67% to $7.60.
The S&P/ASX 200 is Australia’s leading share market index and contains the top 200 ASX-listed companies in terms of market capitalisation, and accounts for about 80% of the country’s equity market. The index is designed to measure the performance of the 200 largest index-eligible stocks listed on the ASX by float-adjusted market capitalisation.
It is recognised as the institutional investable benchmark in the country.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: ASX & iStock
