JSE faces mixed Asian markets on Tuesday as Apple prunes growth targets
A report the tech giant is planning to slow hiring and growth weighed on Wall Street overnight, but follows a rebound on Friday
The JSE, which jumped almost 3% on Monday, may need to come down to earth a little on Tuesday, with markets digesting news that tech giant Apple is pruning growth plans due to a deteriorating global economic outlook.
US markets had surged on Friday amid better-than-expected retail sales and relatively dovish commentary from US Federal Reserve officials, but gave back some gains on Monday, with the S&P 500 falling 0.84% overnight.
The stock market pullback was probably just noise on a slow news day, Oanda senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley said in a note.
“The losses overnight have been dwarfed by the gains from Friday, so the bear market rally thesis still has life; it just won’t be a linear progression,” he said.
Markets were volatile last week as investors started pricing in the prospect of a 100 basis point hike in the US in July, but expectations of this have now eased.
In morning trade the Hang Seng was down 0.29% and the Shanghai Composite 0.24%, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.68%.
Tencent, influential to the JSE due to the Naspers stable, had fallen 0.48%.
Gold was flat at $1,708.94/oz while platinum fell 0.98% to $856. Brent crude was up 0.11% at $105.80 a barrel.
The rand was 0.18% weaker at R17.12/$.
The local corporate and economic calendars are bare on Tuesday, with focus this week on inflation numbers on Wednesday, and the Reserve Bank decision on Thursday.
Locally, SA also looks set for a 50 basis point interest rate hike, while investors are also eyeing the European Central Bank (ECB), which is expected to raise rates by 25 basis points.