ASX falls to finish the quarter, Tabcorp demerger steps up, surge in job vacancies

The Australian market managed to finish the quarter 0.7 per cent high in price terms, but down just over 1 per cent on an accumulation basis.

This was despite the market finishing near its lows on Thursday, down 0.2 per cent.

The only positive contributions came from the rare earth and commodities sector with materials up 1.5 per cent.

The driver was a surge in multiple commodity prices and signs of growing sanctions against Russia.

Champion Iron (ASX: CIA), Fortescue (ASX: FMG) and Iluka (ASX: ILU) all led the way gaining 6, 4.3 and 3.5 per cent respectively.

But the biggest driver of the market was BHP (ASX: BHP) which gained 2.3 per cent and is now nearing an all-time high after finishing at $51.75, just 3 per cent of 2021’s peak.

Magellan (ASX: MFG) shares were down slightly after confirming they will go ahead with a staff retention plan that includes issuing 10 million options with a strike price of $35 to ensure they do not lose talent. 
 
Tabcorp demerger set to proceed, Paladin raising again, Qantas goes net zero
 
Tabcorp (ASX: TAH) shares rallied 2.5 per cent after management confirmed the demerger of its lotteries and Keno business into a standalone company will go ahead in the next few months. Named The Lottery Company, the group is set to list on the ASX in May.

The idea remains to ‘extract value’ by separating the business and allowing for an easier sale or break up of the individual assets.

Job vacancies jumped 6.9 per cent in February, with 423,000 openings, 86 per cent higher than pre-COVID levels.

This is the challenge facing most global economies with record job openings but near full unemployment, as overseas travellers await full border re-openings.

Paladin (ASX: PDN) shares were falling before entering into another trading halt, with management once again seeking $200 million in new equity to help restart their uranium mine in Namibia.

It is almost 12 months to the day of Paladin’s previous $218 million raising to pay back debt associated with the same mine.

Interestingly, the prior CEO just entered a contract to merge two smaller ASX uranium players, Vimy Resources, and Deep Yellow.

Qantas (ASX: QAN) also unveiled a plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 driven by a switch to sustainable aviation fuel and greater fuel efficiency.
 
US markets weaken, negative quarter, retail spending dips, oil supplies cut
 
The US sharemarkets have posted their first negative quarter since the pandemic began, with a selloff in technology stocks on the threat of higher valuations the primary contributor.

On Thursday, all three benchmarks were down, led by the Dow Jones which fell 0.6 per cent, followed by the S&P500, down 1.6 and the Nasdaq, 1.5 with the pace of the selloff accelerating into the close.

The retreat came despite President Biden announcing the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from Government stockpiles which has the oil price falling, now sitting close to US$100 per barrel.

This is expected to reduce the cost of almost everything and stave off growing inflation.

Consumer inflation hit 6.4 per cent year on year via the Fed’s preferred measure, however, this comes as consumer spending slowed to a pace of just 0.2 per cent growth in February, more than half less than expected.

Services spending is once again taking over for products. Airlines have been a key beneficiary, with United (NYSE: UAL) up 1.3 per cent.

Baidu (NYSE: BIDU) shares fell more than 6 per cent after regulators in the US-flagged the company for a potential delisting, which robotic automation software group UiPath (NYSE: PATH) fell 25 per cent after reporting a bigger than expected loss for the quarter.

Drew Meredith

Drew is publisher of the Inside Network's mastheads and a principal adviser at Wattle Partners.