Stocks strong but Aussie Dollar not convinced

10.51 AEST, Tuesday 14 February 2017

Stocks strong but Aussie Dollar not convinced

By Ric Spooner (Chief Market Analyst, CMC Markets)

The ASX 200 has maintained the strong upward momentum of the past two trading days so far this morning.

Commentary about the strong iron ore price remains weighted towards scepticism as it has been for much of the last 12 months. However buyers of mining stocks are not listening. Support for the big mining stocks has continued this morning.

Local investors have also been happy to follow the US lead and push banks higher this morning, looking past any thoughts of caution in advance of CBA’s profit report due tomorrow.

The Aussie Dollar has been pushed higher by the relentless rise in metal prices recently with good gains against the Euro and Japanese Yen. However, it peaked at resistance against the Yen yesterday. This may be one sign that profit takers are starting to get a little trigger happy on the commodity rally. If the Aussie/Yen does not fail at current resistance, it may find it difficult to get past potential trend channel line not far above at around 89.

Cochlear unveiled a solid profit result this morning. Excluding the impact of smaller tenders from China’s Government, underlying sales volumes increased 16%. This indicates a pleasing uptake of Cochlear’s new product range. Management has maintained guidance for F17 but if current momentum is achieved, profit looks like coming in at the top end of the guidance range or better. However, in a case of buy the rumour, sell the fact the stock is struggling to gain traction this morning after rallying 5% over the past two weeks.

© Scoop Media