Sell in May & go away – not this year!

The US market closed marginally higher overnight, however, before our market opened this morning Mr Trump outlined plans to impose a 5% tariff on Mexican goods until that country stops immigrants from entering the U.S. The proposed tariff would take effect on June 10, "until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our country, STOP". As usual, Trump used twitter the break the news and that prompted a decent sell off in US Futures during our time zone today – DOW futures sold off a quick -200pts before our market opened and remained weak throughout our session. Aussie stocks, however, more or less brushed off the news recovering more than ~30pts from the early lows.

As we often say, it’s hard for our market to sell off when the banks are supported, and while they closed largely flat, there was decent buying from the lows into month's end – even Costa Group (CGC) had a big turnaround today to close more than 5% higher on the day.

Overall today, the ASX 200 closed up +5pts at 6397. Dow Futures are trading down -202 points or -0.80%

ASX 200 Chart

ASX 200 Chart

CATCHING OUR EYE:

Sectors this month; The market edged higher overall for the month, however some decent profit taking obvious in the IT & energy sectors.

Stocks this week; Lynas a clear standout while a tough week for Costa, Link & Reliance in particular

Broker Moves;

· Vicinity Centres Resumed at Macquarie With Neutral; PT A$2.49

· Costa Downgraded to Neutral at Macquarie; PT A$4.05

· Costa Upgraded to Add at Morgans Financial; PT A$4.77

· Ansell Downgraded to Neutral at Macquarie; PT A$26.90

· Australian Pharma Rated New Buy at Citi; PT A$1.60

· Bapcor Rated New Outperform at Credit Suisse; PT A$6.95

· Bionmoics Downgraded to Hold at Shaw and Partners; PT A$0.14

Never miss an update

Stay up to date with the latest news from Market Matters by hitting the 'follow' button below and you'll be notified every time I post a wire.

Market Matters publishes daily market reports and sends SMS alerts when we transact on our portfolio. To get our latest market views and hear when we take new positions, trial Market Matters for 14 days at no cost by clicking here.