Australia_News, 200 Miller Street, North Sydney (2026)

08/12/2022

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks are seen opening marginally higher Thursday ahead of the latest jobless claims data, with sentiment remaining fragile given growing fears of an impending recession.

At 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT), the Dow Futures contract was up 55 points or 0.2%, S&P 500 Futures traded 10 points or 0.2% higher, and Nasdaq 100 Futures climbed 27 points or 0.2%.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed flat Wednesday, but the broad-based S&P 500 fell 0.2%, its fifth successive losing day, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended 0.5% lower.

Investors have started to turn their focus away from inflation and when the Federal Reserve ends its aggressive tightening cycle towards the impact on the consumer from these hefty interest rate hikes.

"The U.S. economy is likely to start feeling the effects of this year's policy tightening in earnest in 2023, since the economic effects of changes in monetary policy tend to lag by about six to 12 months," according to analysts at Morgan Stanley, in a note.

The Fed holds its final policy-setting meeting of the year next week, and the weekly jobless claims, due later in the session, will be studied for clues over the size of the U.S. central bank's next move after last week's stronger-than-expected November jobs release.

Initial jobless claims are expected to climb to 230,000, up slightly from the prior week's total of 225,000.

In the corporate sector, earnings are due from the likes of Costco (NASDAQ:COST), Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) and DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU).

Elsewhere, Rent the Runway (NASDAQ:RENT) is likely to be in the spotlight Thursday after the online store company late Wednesday beat its quarterly revenue expectations and raised its guidance for the full year. Its stock rose 16% premarket.

Crude oil prices rose Thursday, rebounding after falling to their lowest levels this year, although gains are tentative as concerns of a global economic slowdown grow.

The market received a boost from data released Wednesday showing U.S. inventories shrank more than expected last week, while China's loosening of more of its COVID mobility restrictions also helped sentiment.

However, worries about demand growth, particularly from the U.S. market, the largest consumer in the world, remain the dominant influence on the crude market.

By 07:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.6% higher at $73.19 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 1% to $77.92.

Brent settled on Wednesday below the year's previous closing low touched on the first day of 2022, while the U.S. contract dropped to a fresh yearly low.

Additionally, gold futures edged 0.1% lower to $1,796.10/oz, while EUR/USD edged lower to 1.0502.

08/12/2022

By Geoffrey Smith

Investing.com -- Shares in On The Beach (LON:OTB) slumped over 10% on Thursday as the online package holiday company said its founder and Chief Executive Simon Cooper will step down from the CEO role "within the next 12 months."

Cooper, who will continue to act as a non-executive director, will be succeeded by Chief Financial Officer Shaun Morton. The exact timing of the handover will depend on how quickly the company can find a new CFO.

The announcement came at the same time as On The Beach announced full-year results for the 12 months through September which showed the company still struggling to recover the business it lost during the pandemic. Despite a smart rebound as the European tourist trade reopened this year, adjusted revenue in the year was still a fraction below fiscal 2019, the last year before COVID-19, while profit before tax on an adjusted basis was only £14.5 million (£1=$1.2205), less than half the £34.5M reported in 2019.

The group said it expects another year of growth in fiscal 2023 despite the macroeconomic headwinds, but its commentary on current trading was conspicuously cautious, highlighting the fact that the fourth quarter of the calendar year is always its quietest period and noting weakness in its bread-and-butter 3-star short-haul holiday business, something that is consistent with reports elsewhere of higher inflation having a greater immediate impact on lower-income households. Sales of 3-star holidays were 18% below pre-pandemic levels.

By contrast, it said that its forward order book was "healthier" than at the same time in 2019 and noted that its premium, long-haul and B2B operations were all growing. Sales of 5-star holidays were up 82% from 2019 levels in the last 12 months. Higher-margin products are steadily gaining importance in the group's product mix, resulting in a 31% rise in average booking values compared to fiscal 2019.

By 05:30 ET (10:30 GMT), On The Beach stock was down 12.6% at a three-week low. It's now down 61% this year, on concerns that the cost-of-living crisis caused by double-digit U.K. inflation will hurt U.K. consumer spending.

08/12/2022

By Lucy Raitano and Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro

(Reuters) - Credit Suisse on Thursday headed into the final stage of a 4 billion Swiss francs ($4.25 billion) cash call that it hopes will allow an overhaul to draw a line under years of scandals.

Despite widespread market uncertainty, five bankers involved in Thursday's 2.2 billion-franc rights issue said they were confident investors would take up more than 90% of the offer and leave them to mop up only a residual amount of shares.

Credit Suisse has already placed some 1.8 billion francs worth of shares with a group of institutional investors led by Saudi National Bank.

The five bankers, who asked not to be named, pointed to the stock’s improved performance over the last few days, as well as the volume of rights changing hands, as a sign that investors were buying into the capital increase.

The result is expected to be announced after market close on Thursday.

Credit Suisse declined to comment.

The combined 4 billion franc package is meant to fund a turnaround and strengthen the balance sheet as the Swiss lender strives to move on from scandals and heavy losses that prompted speculation about its future and led to large withdrawals of cash by its customers.

Shares in Credit Suisse bounced back from historic lows last week as its leadership sought to reassure markets.

After closing above 3 Swiss francs on Monday, they have retreated slightly, finishing Wednesday’s session at 2.851 Swiss francs.

Crucially, they have held above the deal subscription price of 2.52 Swiss francs and were at 2.821 Swiss francs, down around 1% in mid-session trade on Thursday.

Meanwhile, investors rushed to sell any unexercised rights ahead of Tuesday’s rights trading deadline, sources said. Rights give holders the option to buy shares at a discount through the capital increase and thus carry monetary value.

A wide spread between a company’s share price during a rights issue and the deal’s subscription price is often seen as indicative of market appetite.

If shares drop below the issue price, investors can buy them cheaper on the open market, leading to a lower deal take-up and potentially saddling underwriting banks with leftover stock.

Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second largest bank, has been battered by a string of scandals and losses, including a $5.5 billion loss from the unravelling of U.S. investment firm Archegos.

It also had to freeze $10 billion worth of supply chain finance funds linked to insolvent British financier Greensill.

At the end of October, Credit Suisse said it planned to cut thousands of jobs and shift its focus away from investment banking and towards less turbulent wealth management.

($1 = 0.9415 Swiss francs)

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