Shares end lower after market hits 100-day high

Miners BHP (down 0.6 per cent), Rio Tinto (1.1 per cent) and Fortescue (1.3 per cent) all finished in the red. Meanwhile, Champion Iron took a 6.9 per cent hit.

ANZ and NAB ended higher on what was a relatively flat day.

The lowdown:

While rain and flooding continues to cause disruption to New Zealand’s North Island, according to some, it is no cause for alarm for insurers, or the broader market.

“Most of the damage is obviously around IAG because they have a bigger exposure into New Zealand than Suncorp. QBE was off a touch, but I think you wouldn’t be able to detect the impacts in the QBE accounts because they’re much more diversified,” said Hugh Dive, chief investment officer at Atlas Funds Management.

“The markets are quite fairly traded going into reporting season. So, any good news or bad news in January does have a disproportionate outcome. Generally, I’m not too concerned,” he said.

Suncorp and IAG will report their results in a few weeks.

Making global headlines, the Adani Group said it was considering legal action against Hindenburg following its allegations of stock market manipulation and accounting fraud. Hindenburg hit back, see below.

Tweet of the day:

Quote of the day:

With high consumer spending coming to an end a sharp fall could be near, says UBS strategist Richard Schellbach.

“We have identified that consumer euphoria is now behind us, and that a cliff could be approaching, signs of which will be keenly monitored in the post new year trading updates companies provide,” he said.

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Shares in Latitude Group Holdings finished the session up 9.1 per cent at $1.50 as investors cheered the company’s new 10-year deal with David Jones, which will issue some of its customers two new credit card products from later this year.

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What’s happening overseas?

The S&P 500 Index rose 0.2 per cent to clinch its third winning week in the past four, and was near its highest level since summer before fading at the end of the session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 28 points, or 0.1 per cent, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 0.9 per cent.

Helping to lead the way was American Express, which jumped 10.5 per cent despite reporting weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. It gave a forecast for earnings through 2023 that topped Wall Street analysts’ expectations, and announced a planned increase in its dividend.

Another big gain for Tesla’s stock also supported the overall market. It rose 11 per cent following its stronger-than-expected profit report for the end of 2022, released earlier in the week.

The gains helped offset a 6.4 per cent decline in Intel shares following a jarring warning from the chipmaker. Not only did its revenue and earnings fall short of expectations last quarter, it also gave a forecast for revenue this quarter more than $US2 billion ($2.8 billion) below analysts’ expectations.

The US earnings reporting season is well underway and companies have been offering mixed results and forecasts. That’s resulted in some big share price swings.

Two competing big ideas have made Wall Street indices volatile. On one hand is worries about a steep drop-off in profits and a severe recession for the economy following all the Federal Reserve’s increases to interest rates last year that are meant to crush inflation. On the other are hopes that cooling inflation may allow the Fed to take it easier on rates. Reports also showed that income growth for Americans slowed in December, while consumer spending fell off a bit more sharply than expected.

This week could be another busy one for markets, with several high-profile events on top of the Fed’s rate announcement. The European Central Bank will give its latest rates decision, the US government will release its latest monthly check on the jobs market and more than 100 companies in the S&P 500 will report their quarterly results.