ASX Week Ahead, Recap of 52Wk High/Lows

Last Week in Review

The ASX 200 closed Friday at 8,625.10, down 1.22% over the past five sessions, while the All Ordinaries finished at 8,855.9. The market spent much of the week digesting a softer growth pulse from commodity-sensitive sectors, even as domestic macro data was not weak enough to materially shift the Reserve Bank outlook.

The local macro highlight was Wednesday’s March-quarter national accounts release. Australia’s economy grew 0.3% quarter on quarter and 2.5% over the year, with ABS commentary pointing to subdued household and government consumption and weather-related disruptions to mining output and exports. The same week’s balance of payments release showed the current account swung to a $27.1 billion deficit, underlining how much of the recent strength in business investment has been offset by weak net trade.

For share markets, that mix translated into a fairly familiar pattern, with miners and other cyclical exposures struggling, while health care and utilities held up better as investors rotated back toward lower-beta exposures. Friday’s tape was particularly soft, with the ASX 200 dropping 61 points as weaker commodity sentiment weighed on the big resource names and capped any broader relief rally.

There were also several points of interest heading into the weekend.

Megaport remained in focus following its capital raising activity, while index investors were given another near-term catalyst after S&P Dow Jones announced the June quarterly rebalance of the S&P/ASX indices. In the S&P/ASX 50, ALS (ALQ) is set to be added and Pro Medicus (PME) removed before the open on Monday 22 June, which could drive positioning flows over the next two weeks.

The Week Ahead

This is a shortened local trading week, with the ASX cash market closed on Monday 8 June for the King’s Birthday holiday. That means the tone early in the week is likely to be set offshore, particularly by Wall Street and global macro rather than domestic data. The S&P 500 is trading 0.67% higher on the day, with the Nasdaq Composite back up 1% following Friday’s huge 4.18% drawdown.

The biggest near-term catalyst is the US inflation run. May US CPI is due Wednesday night Australian time, followed by May PPI on Thursday night. After inflation re-accelerated through parts of the northern spring, these prints matter directly for Fed pricing, bond yields, the US dollar and, by extension, growth-sensitive pockets of the ASX such as resources and technology.

Locally, the company calendar is relatively light, which means positioning, commodity moves and index-related flows could have an outsized impact. Investors will also be watching whether the ASX 200 can stabilise after slipping back through its 20-day moving average late last week. With domestic macro now largely out of the way until the RBA meeting the following week, there is a decent chance that global inflation data becomes the dominant narrative.

Economic Calendar

* Release times are shown in AEST and may be subject to change.

Stocks Going Ex-Dividend

The following names are scheduled to go ex-dividend during the week. As always, shareholders must own the shares before the ex-dividend date to be eligible for the upcoming payment.

52-Week Highs

Here are some notable stocks coming off 52 week highs during Friday’s session. Eyes will no doubt be on some of these to see how they react upon the open this week.

52-Week Lows

Below are the shares that have made 52 week lows during Friday’s session, with a market cap above A$1B.

IPOs and New Listings

The near-term ASX listing pipeline remains modest. For the week commencing 8 June, the main proposed debut on the official ASX upcoming listings page is Boresight.

Elsewhere, there is of course the SpaceX IPO, due to list on June 12th under ticker SPCX on the Nasdaq.