ASX News LIVE | ASX to Rise as Wall St Shrugs off Hot US Inflation Data

The ASX 200 closed up +0.22% at 7,729.4, with little movement throughout today’s session despite positive trends in US markets.

It seems the hotter-than-expected inflation data wasn’t high enough to concern the wider market, which has seen lumpy inflation figures for the past few months.

The overarching narrative of the Fed being on track to cut rates by June-July this year seems to be largely tied to the idea that unemployment is the bigger trend to watch from here and that job losses are inevitable.

Back to the ASX, we saw seven of the eleven sectors finish in the green today, with Discretionary (+1.30%) and Real Estate (+1.04%) gain the most today, while Materials fell by -0.75%.

The biggest gainers today on the ASX 200 were Liontown Resources up 6% after securing $550 million in debt facilities to develop its Kathleen Valley Lithium Project.

While fellow lithium player Core Lithium tumbled -6.8% after announcing an interim loss of $167.6 million and the exit of its chief executive Gareth Manderson.

Core Lithium [ASX:CXO] chief executive Gareth Manderson has exited the struggling miner, which reported an interim loss of $167.6 million today amidst struggling lithium prices.

The downturn forced Core to cease mining in the Northern Territory and halt work on a major project. With dwindling cash reserves from stockpile sales, Core is entering a hibernation phase as the $200 million BP33 expansion looks unlikely anytime soon.

Manderson’s departure was accompanied by an independent director’s exit.

These big moves happened the day after competitor Pilbara Minerals secured a lithium supply deal with one of Core’s major former customers, Yahua.

Core’s share price is down by -9% trading at 20 cents per share.

Embattled consultancy giant PwC has announced another round of job cuts, with 329 jobs being axed in its ‘new strategic direction’.

The firm has been under public and government scrutiny since last year’s scandal over government contracts and tax secrecy.

A statement from the company said today:

“In light of its shift to a private and corporate sector client-base, the firm has reviewed all aspects of its business, across every level of the organisation.”

As well as those 329 jobs, around 40 partners will be ‘accelerating’ their retirement from the firm.

‘This has been a very challenging and complex process,’ chief executive Kevin Burrowes said today.

 

‘At its heart, this reorganisation will make the firm a more simplified, efficient and centre-led business.’

The ASX 200 is up by +0.24% at 7,730.6 around midday as most sectors lift after a subdued day of trading yesterday.

Eight of the eleven sectors are in the green today, with Discretionary (+1.07%) and Real Estate (+0.86%) leading.

Despite the slightly higher-than-expected CPI data from the US and rising bond yields, equity traders maintained their belief that inflation was slowing enough to warrant cuts by the Fed later this year.

The big movers seen so far today have been Liontown Resources up 10% at $1.45 as the company secures $550 million in debt funding facility to develop its Kathleen Valley lithium project.

Meanwhile, Appen shares are down by -7% as it was revealed that a US tech rival, Innodata Inc, made an offer for a takeover. The company’s stock surged over 30% yesterday without announcement and was therefore put on a trading halt until today.

Core Lithium is also down by -9% as the company’s chief executive Gareth Manderson exits the struggling miner on the same day it revealed an interim loss of $167.6 million.

Lithium producer Liontown Resources [ASX:LTR] has seen its share price jump by 15.2% in trading this morning after the company announce a new debt agreement with a syndicate of banks that includes Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank.

The debt funding facility is worth $550 million for the development of the Kathleen Valley Lithium Project.

Liontown’s Managing Director and CEO, Tony Ottaviano, said:

‘Liontown is very pleased to announce the debt funding facility today and I would like to acknowledge our lending syndicate for their support which once again reinforces the world class qualities of the Kathleen Valley Project.’

 

‘Having this funding in place provides strong endorsement for our project and a platform of financial certainty from which to move forward. We are consequently well-positioned to deliver the remaining milestones to first production mid-year and ramp-up towards anticipated positive cashflows.’

Good morning. Charlie here,

The ASX 200 opened up +0.25% to 7,731.8, as markets largely ignored the hotter-than-expected February inflation report in the US.

The S&P 500 rallied to a fresh all-time high, while a bounce in yields and the US dollar finally broke gold’s hot streak after 10 sessions of gains.

Megacap tech stocks led the charge with Nvidia +7.2%, Meta +3.3%, and Microsoft +2.7%.

US inflation for February was a bit higher than expected across the board.

Core inflation up 0.4% MoM vs. 0.3% consensus

Core inflation up 3.8% YoY vs. 3.7% consensus (down from 3.9% in Jan)

Headline inflation up 0.4% MoM, in-line with consensus

Headline inflation up 3.2% YoY vs. 3.1% consensus (down from 3.1% in Jan)

Wall Street: S&P 500 +1.12%, Dow +0.61%, Nasdaq +1.54%.

Overseas: FTSE +1.02%, STOXX +1.07%, Nikkei flat, SSE -0.41%.

The Aussie dollar fell -0.05% to US 66.08 cents.

US 10-year bond yields +5bps to 4.15%.

Australian 10-year bond yields +6bps to 4.00%.

Gold is down -1.23% to US$2,156.87, while Silver is down -1.55% to US$24.12.

Bitcoin fell -1.00% to US$71,475, while Ethereum fell -2.45% to US$3,974.

Oil Brent rose +0.18% to US$82.36, while WTI Crude rose +0.52% to US$77.96.

Iron ore rose +1.8% to US$109.15 a tonne.