The Match Out: Market trickles lower into the weekend, Resources hit, Happy Father’s day to all the Dads!

No one wanted to go home long on Friday afternoon it seems with the ASX 200 losing ~40pts in the last 2 hours of trade, giving back an early lead following a decent recovery from the lows in the US overnight. Employment data is due out tonight and that will have a big bearing on where interest rates go in the short term, market expectations are for +298k jobs to be added while the unemployment rate will stay stable at 3.5% - clearly still a very tight labour market.

• The ASX 200 finished down -16pts/ -0.25% at 6828
• The Financials sector was best on ground (+0.72%) while Healthcare (+0.49%) & Property (+0.33%) were also strong.
• Materials (-1.94%) and IT (-1.47%) the weakest links.
• Iron Ore hit a 10-month low today trading at $US93 a tonne – RIO + FMG continue to look weak.
• Thiess has extended its $367 million takeover off for MACA (MLD) by two weeks. The bid which is priced at $1.075 a share, was due to close on September 12. To date they have secured only about 19% of MLD – today they closed at $1.07
• Gold was flat today at $US1700 around our close.
• Asian stocks were lower Hong Kong down -1.23% while Japan & China were flat.
• US Futures are all down a touch, around -0.20%
• Not much else happening today, so a very succinct note this afternoon!!

ASX 200 CHART

Sectors this week – Source Bloomberg

Stocks this week – Source Bloomberg

Broker Moves

• MoneyMe Cut to Hold at Ord Minnett; PT 83 Australian cents
• Opthea Raised to Overweight at Wilsons; PT A$1.50
• Ainsworth Game Raised to Neutral at UBS; PT A$1
• Omni Bridgeway Rated New Buy at Barclay Pearce Capital
• Tyro Payments Rated New Underperform at Barclay Pearce Capital
• Rural Funds Rated New Underperform at Barclay Pearce Capital
• Sandfire Rated New Hold at Barclay Pearce Capital; PT A$5
• Mesoblast Rated New Buy at Barclay Pearce Capital; PT A$1.44
• Silk Laser Australia Rated New Hold at Barclay Pearce Capital
• Fleetwood Ltd Rated New Buy at Barclay Pearce Capital; PT A$1.99
• Beforepay Group Rated New Underperform at Barclay Pearce Capital
• Centuria Office REIT Raised to Neutral at Jarden Securities
• CQE AU Cut to Neutral at Jarden Securities; PT A$3.95
• Charter Hall Cut to Underweight at Jarden Securities; PT A$4.60
• Centuria Industrial Cut to Neutral at Jarden Securities
• Vicinity Centres Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT A$2.09
• GPT Group Raised to Buy at Jefferies; PT A$4.78

Major Movers Today

Have a great night

The Market Matters Team

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