Five things to watch on the ASX on Monday

Australian Stock Markets

On Friday the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) finished the financial year with a whimper when it gave back its earlier gains to finish the day down 0.3% at 6,194.6 points.

Will the market be able to start the new financial year in style on Monday? Here are five things to watch:

The ASX is expected to open higher.

The local market is expected to open the day higher on Monday. According to the latest SPI futures, the S&P/ASX 200 is poised to open 23 points or 0.4% higher following a positive end to the week on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the week with a 0.2% gain, the S&P 500 was up 0.1%, and the NASDAQ was 0.1% higher.

Oil prices have continued to rise.

Australian energy producers such as Oil Search Limited (ASX: OSH) and Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL) could be set for another positive day of trade after the price of U.S. crude settled above US$74.00 for the first time since November 2014.

Prices have been rising after sanctions against Iran threatened to remove a substantial volume of oil from world markets. WTI crude closed up 1% at US$74.15 a barrel and Brent crude was up 2% to US$79.44 a barrel. The latter is closing in on a three and a half year high.

Aluminium prices slide.

According to the London Metal Exchange, the aluminium price dropped lower on Friday. Aluminium closed the week with a 1% decline to US$2,159 a tonne, which could put pressure on the Alumina Limited (ASX: AWC) share price today.

CSL and ResMed rated as buys.

The shares of CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) and ResMed Inc (ASX: RMD) could be on the rise on Monday after they were the subject of positive broker notes out of Goldman Sachs.

The broker has initiated coverage on both companies with buy ratings.

Ramsay Health Care rated as a sell.

Ramsay Health Care Limited (ASX: RHC) shares, on the other hand, could be set for another day in the red after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on the private hospital operator with a sell rating.

It is concerned that hospitals face industry headwinds which are expected to unwind over several periods.

Things to watch on the ASX today

Australian Stock Markets

Will the Australian share market be able to build on this and finish on a high on Friday? Here are five things that could shape the day’s trade:

On Thursday the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) snapped its losing streak with the smallest of gains. The benchmark index finished the day 4.6 points higher at 6,037.1 points.

ASX futures are pointing lower.
According to the latest SPI futures, the Australian share market is expected to open the day lower by 27 points or 0.45%.

This follows declines on Wall Street overnight after President Trump pulled the plug on his meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3%, the S&P 500 was off 0.2%, and the NASDAQ was down slightly.

Trump cancels the North Korea meeting.
While the cancellation of President Trump’s meeting with North Korea sent U.S. markets lower, it has given the gold price a lift.

The spot gold price is up 0.9% to US$1,304.5 an ounce, which could mean the likes of Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) and Resolute Mining Limited (ASX: RSG) have a positive day of trade.

Results are due to be released.
Yesterday it was Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ASX: ALL) reporting its results, today it is the turn of Mesoblast limited (ASX: MSB) and Thorn Group Ltd (ASX: TGA) to release their respective results. Mesoblast’s shares fell heavily yesterday ahead of the release, which could be an indication that some shareholders are concerned that it could fall short of expectations.

Oil prices give back gains.
The shares of many of Australia’s leading energy producers such as Oil Search Limited (ASX: OSH) and Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL) could come under pressure today after oil prices fell.

WTI crude oil has fallen 1.6% to US$70.67 a barrel and Brent crude oil is down 1.3% to US$78.77 a barrel.

The Royal Commission continues.
Banking giant Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) took to the stand at the Royal Commission on Thursday.

The bank’s shares tumbled to a 52-week low after an executive admitted the bank put off writing to overcharged small business customers so he could avoid being grilled at a parliamentary hearing.

Things to watch on ASX today

Australian Stock Markets

Although it faded as the day went on, the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) finished with a 0.1% gain to 6,091.9 points on Tuesday.

ASX futures point higher. According to the latest SPI futures, the Australian share market is poised to open the day 5 points or 0.1% higher on Wednesday. This comes after a soft day of trade on U.S. markets which saw the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq edge higher and the S&P 500 end the day ever so slightly lower.

Budget reaction.
This morning there is likely to be a lot of Budget-related buying and selling going on. Home care provider Zenitas Healthcare Ltd (ASX: ZNT) could be one to watch after the government pledged $1.6 billion over the next four years to support older Australians who want to stay at home instead of going into aged care. Retail shares will also be on watch after income tax cuts were made across the board.

Results are due out.
This morning Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX: IPL) and CSR Limited (ASX: CSR) are expected to release their latest results. In respect to Incitec Pivot, a note out of Goldman Sachs reveals that it is looking for a 17.8% increase in EBIT to $286 million, earnings per share of 10 cents, and a 5 cents per share interim dividend.

Oil prices have taken a tumble.
The strong run of oil prices came to an end overnight despite President Trump announcing plans to reinstate the highest level of economic sanctions on Iran. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price has fallen 1% to US$70.04 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price is off 0.2% to US$76.00 a barrel. The UK-listed shares of BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) fell 1.5% overnight.

ResMed goes ex-dividend.
 The shares of RESMED Inc. (ASX: RMD) may drop lower this morning after going ex-dividend for the sleep treatment company’s quarterly dividend. Eligible investors can then look forward to receiving the 3.5 U.S. cents per share dividend in their nominated accounts on June 14.

8@eight: Stocks to open flat after Fed sparks late Wall Street selloff

The Australian sharemarket is set to open flat, with S&P/ASX 200 futures giving up most of their gains as the US sharemarket turned negative in the final hour of trading.

Wall Street assessed the Federal Reserve's signal that it's in no rush to raise rates even as inflation rises to its target, sparking inflation concerns. The US central bank left interest rates unchanged, but kept the door open for a rate rise in June.

Aussie Dollar: The Australian dollar has followed Wall Street lower after the US Federal Reserve indicated that it is on track to raise its interest rate at its next policy meeting in June.

At 6:35 am AEST on Thursday, the local currency was worth 74.86 US cents, down from 75.11 US cents on Wednesday. Currency traders are now looking to upcoming economic data such as March trade figures and service sector PMIs for April. 

Australian shares: The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.6 per cent to 6,050 on Wednesday, powered by Qantas Airways. The nation's biggest airline joined the global earnings party after forecasting record annual profit and excited investors with the order of six new 787 Dreamliners.

Twenty stocks hit 52-week highs during Wednesday's session, with only two hitting 52-week lows.

In economics news on Thursday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases building approvals figures for March, and international trade data, also for March. 

On the companies side, National Australia Bank releases its half year results, and QBE Insurance and Santos hold their annual general meetings.

4 ASX shares are ending the week on high this week

Australian Stock Markets

Four shares that have climbed more than most today are listed below. Here’s why they are ending the week on a high:

The Blackham Resources Ltd (ASX: BLK) share price has continued its charge higher and is up 7.5% to 8.7 cents.

On Thursday the gold miner provided the market with an update on its operations in February. That update revealed record production and an impressively low all-in sustaining cost. Investors appear to believe that Blackham has turned around its fortunes after a troubling 12 months.

The Bubs Australia Ltd (ASX: BUB) share price has climbed almost 4% to 81.5 cents. This morning it was announced that the goats milk infant formula and baby food company would be added to the All Ordinaries at the March rebalance.

This could potentially bring Bubs onto the radar of fund managers. Whilst I am a fan of the company, I think investors should hold off investing until its sales catch up to its valuation.

The Cann Group Ltd (ASX: CAN) share price has risen 1% to $2.92. Although this is only a small move higher, it is significantly outperforming its medicinal cannabis peers which have fallen sharply today.

The catalyst for this gain is likely to be due to its inclusion on the All Ordinaries index this month. This makes it the first medicinal cannabis company to feature on a major Australian index.

The REA Group Limited (ASX: REA) share price is up almost 2.5% to $79.80.

Today’s gain is likely to be attributable to a broker note out of Citi this morning.

That note revealed that Citi’s analysts have upgraded the property listings company to a buy rating from neutral. The broker bumped its price target up to $90.00 as well.

Why these 4 ASX shares are climbing higher today

Australian Share Markets

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 (Index: AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has dropped into the red and is down slightly at 5,940 points.

Four shares that have not let that hold them back are listed below. Here’s why they have climbed higher:

The A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M) share price has followed up on yesterday’s stellar gain with a 7% move higher to $12.12.

At one stage the dairy company’s shares were up as much as 22% to an all-time high of $13.78 before profit-taking started to weigh them down.

The catalyst for this is likely to have been a broker note out of Citi which revealed that its analysts had retained their buy rating and increased their price target to $14.00.

The Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price has jumped 11% to $55.50.

This morning the travel agent announced a net profit of $102 million on revenues of $1,370 million.

This was an increase of 37% and 5%, respectively, on the prior corresponding period.

Management also upgraded its full-year profit before tax guidance to between $360 million and $385 million, from $350 million to $380 million previously.

The Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) share price has soared 6.5% higher to $5.61 after announcing a record half-year profit.

For the six months ended December 31, Qantas delivered a 15% increase in underlying first-half profit before tax of $976 million.

The key drivers of this growth were its Qantas Domestic and Jetstar segments. These two segments delivered double digit earnings growth during the period.

The Webjet Limited (ASX: WEB) share price has surged 16% to $11.98 following the release of a solid first-half result.

 The online travel agent achieved sales of $131.9 million and EBITDA from continuing operations of $41 million.

This was a 52% and 63% increase, respectively, on the prior corresponding period.

This puts the company on track to beat its FY 2018 guidance of more than $3 billion in TTV and EBITDA of at least $80 million.

Why these 5 shares started the week strong

Australian Stock Markets

The S&P/ASX 200 kicked off the week up 14.8 points to 5,918 on February 19 after finishing last week down at 5,890.

Mondayitis was kicked to the curb for these 5 companies, who followed the index up and started the week strong.

Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT)

Shares in Beach Energy zoomed up 5.53% today keeping the company firmly in the S&P/ASX 200 top risers thanks to a strong half-year results posting which detailed a 5% increase in profit and a 14% increase in revenue.

Beach has recently finalised the $1.58 billion deal to acquire Lattice – a major supplier of gas to east coast markets, including the Otway joint venture.

Shareholders have backed the oil and gas explorer and producer over the last year, raising the share value from its February 20 2017 price of 69c per share.

Fairfax Media Limited (ASX: FXJ)

Multi-platform media group Fairfax Media would have been delighted to find itself on the S&P/ASX 200 gainers list today with a price rise of 3.2% to 63c per share.

It’s good news for the news and information giant, which has been trying to recover from a severe share price slide in November 2017 after the spin off of real estate classified and service business

Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (ASX: DHG).

Shares in Fairfax fell to a 3-year low during last week’s trading, down 3% to 64c per share on February 13 and the company has a long way to go to get back to the $1.16 share price it held at this time last year, much less its June 2 2017 high of $1.68.

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP)

Pizza franchise giant Domino’s Pizza Enterprises, with a significant slice of the pizza segment across Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan and the Principality of Monaco, saw its share price move up 3.5% on February 19 to $44.01 per share.

Domino’s handed down lukewarm half-year results on February 14, with underlying earnings per share up 5.8% and revenue up 5.2% – a substantial slow down on previous year’s.

Domino’s would be happy with any type of gain to start the week given it came in as the second-worse performing stock on the S&P/AX 200 on February 14 when share prices slipped 6% before falling even harder to close off last week at $42.50.

Domain Holdings Australia (ASX: DHG)

Share prices in real estate and media technology services business Domain Holdings have shot up almost 5% today to $3.01 at the time of writing, off the back of its half-year report being handed down today.

Domain’s half-year results showed profit is down 8.1% to $24.7 million, but revenue is up 12.5% to $183.2 million.

Domain announced EBITDA rose 8.7% to $56.8 million and the company declared a 30% franked interim dividend of 4c per share.

Domain hit the market at $3.69 when it first listed in November last year, but has so far struggled to reach that height again.

Primary Health Care Limited (ASX: PRY)

Shares in the healthcare company with medical and pathology centres across Australia rose 4.6% to $3.82 on February 19 following the release of its half-year results on February 16.

Investors have rallied behind the company following the announcement of a 5% profit gain and possible major rebranding project to assist its medical centre portfolio.

Revenues in Primary were reportedly up 6% to $857 million, with the most strength coming from its pathology division.

Shareholders were likely kept happy with the announcement Primary would up its interim dividend to 5.1c per share, with earnings per share higher at 4.2c per share also announced.

The Litecoin (LTC) price has doubled in value in 10 days

Australian Stock Markets

In afternoon trade the litecoin (LTC) price appears to be running out of steam after a sensational move higher this week.

At the time of writing the litecoin price is down 5% since this time yesterday to US$220.18 according to Coin Market Cap.

As a comparison, the bitcoin (BTC) price is currently up over 7% over the last 24 hours to US$10,272, Ethereum (ETH) is 3% higher at US$949.58, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is almost 10% higher to US$1,480.

Why is Litecoin sinking lower?

I suspect that today’s decline is the result of profit-taking from cryptocurrency traders.

After all, the popular altcoin has seen its value more than double during the last 10 days.

On February 6 Litecoin was priced at just US$108.43, whereas overnight it reached as high as US$236.

Traders have been fighting to get hold of it due to a couple of positive developments this week.

The first is the introduction of LitePay.

The merchant payment processing technology will officially launch in 41 countries on February 26 and will allow businesses to accept Litecoin payments by instantly processing the payments that are settled directly with their banks.

In addition to this, a LitePay Visa card will be available and will be accepted wherever Visa cards are accepted, taking the money directly out of the user’s Litecoin wallet.

The second development was news that Litecoin is going to follow in the footsteps of bitcoin and have its own hard fork next week.

The fork will result in the launch of Litecoin Cash.

Essentially this is an upgraded version of Litecoin with quicker processing times and lower transaction costs.

It has been designed to increase its appeal for real world use.

Owners of Litecoin at the time of the fork will receive 10 Litecoin Cash tokens.

Should you buy Litecoin?

I think these are very positive developments for Litecoin holders and I can’t say I’m surprised to see its price rally on the news.

But it isn’t enough for me to part with my money.

I’ll be watching on with interest next week when the hard fork occurs and then when LitePay launches, but it’ll be from the safety of the sidelines.