Wall Street's record-breaking four-day streak came to a halt on Friday after a survey showed consumer sentiment was souring and oil prices continued to rise.
The ASX is priced for its fifth consecutive session of losses with NAB due to release third quarter results while JB Hi Fi, BlueScope Steel and Lendlease are scheduled to report full year earnings this morning.
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Steelmaker BlueScope has reported an 857% increase in net profit to $802 million thanks to record sales of its Colorbond product and tight cost disciplines.
On an underlying basis, removing one-off items, profit hit $851.2 million, ahead of the consensus estimate of $842 million.
A special (unfranked) dividend of 70 cents per share was added to the final 65 cent per share dividend, taking the full year return to $3/share, also ahead of analyst expectations.
The company said it planned to keep the full year payment of $3 in 2027.
Just a bit more on the oil market — it's worthwhile remembering that not everyone is a loser.
The US, Iran and the rest of the world deal may be suffering with the pain of rising inflation, there are still a few winners out there that can be easily identified.
The oil traders who clip the ticket on oil sales, and of course the oil companies themselves.
The investment research site, "The Kobeissi Letter" posted the interesting fact that the world's five biggest oil companies were sitting on record cash pile, having generated around $US70 billion in free cash flow in the second quarter… a 600% increase on the previous quarter.
Something to mull over next time you're filling up.
Oil traders have been given two competing narratives to hedge their bets on in recent days.
