It’s Big Wednesday in New Zealand with heavyweight companies Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Infratil due to report their annual results today and the Reserve Bank poised to cut the official cash rate again.
They’re not the only show, with undercards including results from Rakon and Smartpay, an annual meeting for AoFrio, plus earnings from Goodman Group and Web Travel across the Tasman.
All that activity comes as Wall Street was back on the rise after the Memorial Day holiday, with the major indices catching up on Asia as they surged on US President Donald Trump’s tariff playbook move of threatening a big levy then giving more time for a deal to be cut.
And Nvidia’s upcoming earnings on Wednesday in the US are coming into view, with options trading indicating investors anticipate a pop for the chipmaker.
Arcane arts
The kiwi dollar fell to 59.49 US cents at 7am in Auckland from 59.78 cents yesterday ahead of the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy statement, due at 2pm on Wednesday, with the central bank widely expected to cut the official cash rate 25 basis points to 3.25% in the first decision under governor Christian Hawkesby, who stepped in after Adrian Orr’s unexpected exit earlier this year.
“With a 25-basis-point cut in the OCR to 3.25% almost universally expected and fully priced, the main interest will lie in the policy guidance,” Bank of New Zealand senior market strategist Jason Wong said in a note. “A weaker growth outlook and a stronger NZ dollar should reduce the medium-term inflation outlook, enabling a lowering of the projected OCR track to just below 3%.”
Meanwhile, local investors are eyeing up earnings results from infrastructure investor Infratil and medical device maker Fisher & Paykel Healthcare for a gauge on the impact of US President Donald Trump’s policy prescription on their North American businesses.
Elsewhere, high-tech components maker Rakon and payments firm Smartpay – which is under a takeover offer – are due to report their earnings, while refrigeration systems firm AoFrio is holding its annual meeting today.
Australian futures are pointing to a stronger day in the antipodes, indicating a 0.6% gain for the S&P/ASX 200 index. Goodman Group and Web Travel are reporting earnings across the Tasman today.
Art of the deal
That’s following a strong lead from Wall Street, which returned from its Memorial Day holiday on Monday, where investors caught up on the global rally on Trump’s delaying of a threat to slap a 50% levy on the European Union.
The S&P 500 was up 1.4% in late trading, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite surged 2.3% with Big Tech mega-stocks pacing gains ahead of Nvidia’s quarterly result on Wednesday in the US.
Options trading is indicating many investors expect Nvidia will rally on its result.
Stronger US consumer confidence added another tailwind to the rally on Wall Street, with a surge in the Conference Board’s expectations measure.
European stock markets were also stronger, with Germany’s DAX 30 advancing 0.8% and the UK’s FTSE 100 index up 0.7%, as defence stocks continued their march higher after Trump threatened to impose further sanctions on Russia in the wake of its heightened attacks on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, shares of PDD Holdings declined after the owner of the Temu low-cost e-commerce platform’s first-quarter profit almost halved in the face of heightened competition and the uncertainty posed by Trump’s reset of global trade.
Local data today include filled jobs in the month of April, while across the Tasman the monthly consumer price index indicator is due to be released.
Reporting by Paul McBeth. Image from Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.
