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ASX 200 futures point to a positive 0.6% gain for Australian shares when trade opens today, even after Jim Chalmers’ tax-cut loaded budget – dubbed a “lay-by” release by some – simply failed to excite pundits and punters alike.
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Chalmers shared his fourth budget late yesterday evening, with the highlights including a continuing deficit and up to $17 billion in small tax cuts.
There was also basically nothing on energy bar $150 rebates on power bills.
That aforementioned deficit will run to 2035/26, Chalmers said, while net debt has risen from 19.9% to 21.5% – but investors don’t seem to mind too much, with things ticking over into the green for the local bourse anyway.
Some of that dovishness may instead be seeping over from the U.S. too though, where softening Trump sentiments saw indices add as much as 0.5% today.
In company news, Endeavour Group (ASX:EDV) chairman Ari Mervis is mulling a breakup of the hospitality giant; he’s currently wading through a “major review” of structure and searching for answers to flat alcohol sales.
James Hardies Industries’ (ASX:JHX) headline-grabbing $14 billion buyout proposal for Azek may have hit a snag this Wednesday too – three U.S. law firms are now threatening legal action over concerns the price is “too low.” Those claims are are odds with Morgan Stanley’s assessment that the price is a “heavy premium” however.
Insurance Australia Group (ASX:IAG) has today requested a delay on its $7 billion insurance claims trials as it slogs through more than one million documents.
Star Entertainment (ASX:SGR) has also extended $950M survival talks through to April 1.
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Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 63 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has retreated 0.7% to sell at $101.55 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $73.19,
Gold is trading at $3,040 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures slipped again, to $3.86 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.
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