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That’s it from us today, thanks for tuning in to Markets Live for what was a big week on the markets.
Alex Druce, Lucy Battersby and Colin Kruger will be back on Monday with the tail end of earnings season which always brings a few surprises.
See you then!
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If there was one unavoidable lesson from reporting season this week, it is that Delta has got many more ways of giving everyone the blues. Its disruptive effect on everything from supply chains to lockdowns is clouding the corporate outlook.
Woolies groceries business has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of our collective lockdown but even CEO Brad Banducci is sweating over the prospect of delivering Christmas to its supermarket and discount store customers as COVID strangles its supply chains.
“Given what happened in China last week, we are anxious just more broadly on making sure we get all the products we need into the country for Christmas, in food and Big W,” Baducci said after its full year results on Thursday.
“Although dividend hikes and share buybacks continued to rule the earnings results, logistics issues highlighted by some companies drew sharp reactions from investors. This was primarily true for Woolworths, Lovisa and Ansell, which recorded bumper profits while sharing anxiety about disruptions in global shipping and supply chains,” Kalkine Group chief executive Kunal Sawhney says.
ASX investors were mostly parked on the sidelines on Friday as markets awaited direction from the US Federal Reserve at tonight’s Jackson Hole symposium.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed just 2.4 points lower at 7488.3 in the final session of the week as losses for blue-chips BHP, ANZ, and Wesfarmers offset gains for Commonwealth Bank, CSL, Rio Tinto, and NAB.
The Australian sharemarket did manage to finish the final full week of profit season 0.3 per cent higher.
Once again, investor reactions were mixed when it came to company results.
Bunnings, Kmart, and Officeworks owner Wesfarmers closed Friday 2.8 per cent lower at $62.20 even after lifting its profit, revenue, and final dividend, as well as surprising shareholders with a $2.3 billion return of capital via a $2-a-share payment.
The Australian sharemarket finished flat on Friday but still managed a narrow weekly gain as investors awaited direction from the US Fed at tonight’s Jackson Hole symposium.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed just 2.4 points lower at 7488.3 in the final session of the week as losses for BHP, ANZ, and Wesfarmers offset gains for Commonwealth Bank, CSL, Rio Tinto, and NAB.
The market finished the final full week of earnings season 0.3 per cent higher.
Bunnings, Kmart, and Officeworks owner Wesfarmers finished 2.8 per cent lower at $62.20 even after lifting its profit, revenue, and final dividend, as well as surprising shareholders with a $2.3 billion return of capital via a $2-a-share payment.
The Mark Bouris-run Yellow Brick Road reported a $460,000 loss for the 2021 financial year with revenue declining 11 per cent to $166 million, but the real fun - as ever - is in Bouris’s pay packet.
The latest consultancy agreement between YBR and Bouris’s Golden Wealth Holdings Pty Limited (‘GWH’) continued to pay him $1.125 million for the 2021 financial year.
YBR’s financial report notes that the payment is “subject to an annual clawback of up to $225,000 in the event of annual targets set by the company’s board of directors not being met.
“These targets are focused on the business results of the group, “including the effectiveness of and value obtained in promoting the consolidated entity and the business from the social media platforms which are owned by The Mentor Platform Pty Limited and controlled by Mark Bouris.
“The Board resolved that annual targets were achieved in both FY20 and FY21, and that no clawback was triggered.“
YBR shares were unchanged at 9c, valuing the group at just under $30 million.
Iron ore giant Rio Tinto says it has no record of the Northern Territory University dumping priceless Aboriginal cultural artefacts being held on its behalf, and only became aware the materials ended up in a Darwin tip after the fact.
The Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation, which has native title over an area covering about 40 per cent of Rio Tinto’s iron ore operations in Western Australia’s Pilbara, claimed in June the company had engaged in a cover-up which led to artefacts and records from the Marandoo mine being destroyed instead of placed in safekeeping.
Cultural materials were being kept by the university, which has since become the Charles Darwin University as part of a merger, for analysis before non-discarded materials were eventually given back to Rio Tinto.
The company’s Australian operations chief executive, Kellie Parker, told a federal inquiry into the destruction of Juukan Gorge on Friday the company had no internal records on the disposal of Eastern Guruma artefacts from an incident in 1995 at the NT University.
Asian stock markets were mixed Friday as investors awaited more guidance on the US Federal Reserve’s easing plans.
The moves in Asia follow a pullback on Wall Street after the deadly attacks on Afghan civilians and U.S. troops at the Kabul airport on Thursday.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.3 per cent to 27,651.51 while the Kospi in South Korea added 0.3 per cent to 3,139.00. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong was 0.6 per cent higher at 25,559.56.
The Shanghai Composite advanced 0.4 per cent to 3,516.13. Benchmarks in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia rose while Singapore slipped.
The corporate watchdog was hauled in front of the parliamentary committee on corporations and financial services for a four-hour grilling today where everything from cryptocurrency to funeral insurance was discussed.
There were two key highlights.
One was the fiery interaction by Labor Senator Deb O’Neill who asked ASIC Commissioner Cathie Armour a series of pointed questions about her previous employment as Macquarie, and whether it created conflicts of interest with ASIC’s investigation of Nuix - the catastrophic Macquarie-backed float that is now being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.
While the Senator’s questions were described as “fishing” and the Commissioner’s responses were labelled “obfuscation”, there were a few telling insights: Armour confirmed she had oversight of the AFP’s warrant regarding Nuix co-founder Tony Castagna in 2008, she provided legal advice to Macquarie over Castagna’s consulting services to the investment bank and also advised Macquarie over its initial investment in Nuix.
Another day, another mixed session for earnings season reactions.
We’re at the tail end of the reporting season, although there are a few reporting companies to run next week, including the eagerly anticipated Fortescue Metals on Monday.
Here’s how investors have reacted to today’s figures:
The good
Competition tsar Rod Sims has called for the watchdog to get the final say over mergers and acquisitions in Australia, with digital giants Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon firmly in its cross-hairs.
Mr Sims said Australia’s current system where the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission must go to court to stop a merger it considers anti-competitive was flawed and out of step with other jurisdictions.
The ACCC has been largely unsuccessful in these legal battles and failed to stop AGL acquiring Macquarie Generation and win its high-profile case against the $15 billion merger between TPG and Vodafone.
In a speech to the Law Council of Australia on Friday morning, Mr Sims said consumers and small businesses were increasingly being squeezed by corporate giants hoovering up smaller rivals.