Next Week At A Glance – 2-6 Dec 2024

This story features EVOLUTION MINING LIMITED, and other companies. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: EVN

For a more comprehensive preview of next week’s events, please refer to “The Monday Report”, published each Monday morning. For all economic data release dates, ex-div dates and times and other relevant information, please refer to the FNArena Calendar.

The week that was in Australian Finance:

-Investors might be starting to question if the Santa rally came early with the ASX200 recording a robust rally led by technology stocks and financial stocks, again, and the ASX200 reaching all-time highs in November.

-A mixed Nov inflation reading confirmed service price rises remain sticky and RBA Governor Bullock continues to beat the hawkish drum of no interest rate cut relief in the near-term. 

-Black Friday sales as suggested by the latest Kepler data hasve seen a strong start with shopping center foot traffic and sales up 6% and 15% respectively on last year’s pre-Black Friday week (not on previous corresponding period to adjust for Black Friday timing differences), according to Citi.

-US markets looked beyond proposed tariffs from President Trump’s Truth Social tweet for an additional 10% on China and 25% on Mexico and Canada. Both the S&P500 and Dow Jones reached record highs at 6021 and 44860, respectively, alongside a slide in commodities prices and a strong US dollar rally. 

-The Australian dollar continues to trade around US65c and Bitcoin has staged a few attempts at reaching US$100,000.

-Politics and geo-politics look set to remain a potential driver for market volatility as we saw this week with the Trump tariffs causing companies and central bankers to scramble for ‘ what if’ scenarios.

Have a great weekend, from your FNArena Team!

Corporate news in the week that was:

-Evolution Mining ((EVN)) is considering selling its Mungari gold mine, a move that could fetch between $600m and $1bn

-Pacific Equity Partners is in advanced talks to acquire Australian fleet management company SG Fleet ((SGF)) in a deal valued at over $1bn

-Air New Zealand ((AIR)) expects earnings before tax for the first half of FY25 in the range of $NZ120m to $NZ160m as it warned of ongoing aircraft shortage due to maintenance delays

-Synlait Milk ((SM1)) has increased its forecast base milk price for the 2024/2025 season to $NZ9.50 per kg milk solid (kgMS), up from $NZ9.00 due to stronger global commodities prices

-Battery technology company Novonix ((NVX)) signed binding supply deal with Volkswagen’s PowerCo for 32,000 tonnes of synthetic graphite starting 2027

-MinRes’ Chris Ellison quits as Chairman of Delta Lithium ((DLI))

-Carnaby Resources ((CNB)) is raising $15m to fund the acquisition of the Trekelano copper mine

-Fonterra ((FSF)) seeks court clarification on its licensing agreement with Bega Cheese ((BGA)) to facilitate the sale of its assets

-Seven ((SWM)), ABC, SBS and ACM join forces to demand AI firms like OpenAI and Google pay for using their content to train large language models, filing with the ACCC for collective bargaining approval.

-Macquarie Bank’s ((MQG)) London branch (MBL) was fined GBP13m for trader’s fraudulent activity

-CommBank ((CBA)) says its big generative AI bet is already fast-tracking core system upgrades, enhancing customer engagement and cutting fraud by 30% via proactive alerts

-Maas Group ((MGH)) is acquiring three construction material companies for -$252m and is raising $125m

-AVJennings ((AVJ)) is being acquired by Proprium Capital Partners in a deal valued at $374m

-Macquarie Asset Management ((MQG)) is considering a bid for I-MED, a large radiology company

-Dexus ((DXS)) is selling two office properties for a total of $443.2m

Corporate Calendar

For a calendar of earnings result releases and a summary of earnings results to date, refer to FNArena’s Corporate Results Monitor (https://www.fnarena.com/index.php/reporting_season/)

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