Next Week At A Glance – 27-31 Jan 2025

This story features STAR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP LIMITED, and other companies. For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: SGR

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:

-A week is a long time in politics, or so the saying goes, no more so now for the markets, with President Trump hitting the ground running last Monday post his inauguration.

-As promised, Trump 2.0 is so far filled with many statements of intent, some with more substance and follow-through than others.

-US markets continued to rally off the not-as-bad-as-feared CPI reading last week, generating a welcome sell-off in bond yields, with some posturing the Trump tariffs won’t be so bad.

-Australia caught some buying love this week, with the ASX up over 1%. Following Nasdaq, the information technology sector was the winner, with financials, consumer discretionary, and real estate going along for the ride.

-Netflix’s strong result and the AI US$100bn Stargate announcement helped move tech sentiment along.

-President Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” isn’t so great for oil prices, and the ASX energy sector went risk-off along with the materials sector. Rotation, rotation, rotation!

-The S&P 500 reached a new all-time high, so next week is lining up to be interesting with more corporate results in the US and quarterly reports for Australia.

-Drumroll: the domestic December quarter CPI reading on Wednesday will no doubt have experts oohing and aahing about the upcoming RBA rates decision on February 18.

Have a great weekend, from your FNArena Team!

Corporate news in the week that was:

-According to Bloomberg, HSBC is studying options for its consumer banking business in Australia, including a possible divestment

-Star Entertainment ((SGR)) reported 15% revenue drop, ongoing funding struggles and a “material uncertainty” warning, as weak trading and regulatory pressures take their toll

-Iress ((IRE)) sells superannuation business to Apex for $40m, plus potential milestone payments

-Optus is considering selling sports streaming to Nine Entertainment ((NEC)), potentially shifting EPL rights to Stan

-IGO Ltd ((IGO)) has flagged major impairment for Kwinana lithium refinery

-MA Financial ((MAF)) secures $171m for its first ASX-listed investment trust, launching in March

-Regal Partners’ ((RPL)) funds under management leap 63.7% in 2024

-Wesfarmers ((WES)) to wind down Catch

-Star Entertainment’s ((SGR)) lenders hire restructuring lawyer Nikki Smythe as the casino group faces mounting financial risks

-Endeavour Group’s ((EDV)) split from Woolworths Group to cost more than anticipated

-Revolut pushes closer to an Australian banking licence

-Trump threatens retaliation over Australia’s big tech tax, risking higher levies on expats and companies

-Dexus ((DXS)) is set to acquire a Powerco stake from the Australian Retirement Trust

-Woodside Energy ((WDS)) has paused its US hydrogen and solar projects following Donald Trump’s election

-Synlait Milk ((SM1)) has stated the company will “return to profitability” this year

-ASIC’s private credit probe exposes hidden fees and trustee conflicts

-Monadelphous ((MND)) wins $150m Rio Tinto ((RIO)) contracts for construction and water management

-Earlypay ((EPY)) is seeking a buyer

-Mosaic Brands ((MOZ)) is closing down its seventh label, Rivers

-ASX ((ASX)) issues $1m rebates related to last year’s CHESS outage

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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