Flat start expected ahead of trade deal signing

David Jones’ South African owner Woolworths Holdings has appointed Roy Bagattini as its new CEO, cheering investors keen for a fresh pair of hands to tackle the department store’s struggling business.

The Levi Strauss executive replaces Ian Moir, who will step down in February after nine years at the helm during which he oversaw the group’s digital transformation and paid a big premium for David Jones to bulk up in Australia.

Moir’s departure from the top job at Woolworths was widely anticipated by analysts as his $US2 billion acquisition in 2014 of David Jones has weighed on the group, which has had to write down its value twice and pump in millions of dollars to refurbish its Elizabeth Street store in Sydney, disrupting sales.

Bagattini, 56, has been running Levi Strauss’ business in the US for more than three years. He previously served as the denim brand’s Asia Pacific, Middle-East and Africa president, and also worked for Denmark-based beer producer Carlsberg and South African-founded brewer SABMiller.

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IG MARKETS SPONSORED POST

SPI futures closed up 5 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 6914 earlier this morning.

• AUD flat at 69.04 US cents
• On Wall St near 3.45pm: Dow +0.1% S&P 500 -0.2% Nasdaq -0.1%
• In New York: BHP +0.7% Rio +0.2% Atlassian -0.9% JPMorgan +1.4%
• In Europe: Stoxx 50 -0.1% FTSE +0.1% CAC +0.1% DAX flat
• Nikkei 225 futures flat
• Spot gold -0.3% to $US1543.57 /oz at 1.16pm New York
• Brent crude +0.8% to $US64.72 a barrel
• US oil +0.4% to $US58.31 a barrel
• Iron ore +1.1% to $US97.03 a tonne
• Dalian iron ore -0.1% to 665.5 yuan
• LME aluminium +0.6% to $US1809 a tonne
• LME copper +0.2% to $US6302 a tonne
• 2-year yield: US 1.57% Australia 0.82%
• 5-year yield: US 1.62% Australia 0.87%
• 10-year yield: US 1.81% Australia 1.25% Germany -0.17%
• 10-year US/Australia yield gap near 7.45am AEDT: 56 basis points

IG MARKETS SPONSORED POST

The highly anticipated signing of the “phase one” trade deal between the US and China remains the biggest focus for markets. Overall, expectations are positive as it marks progress between the two nations. Markets hit a little speed bump this morning after a report said the US would maintain existing tariffs on the Chinese economy until the US presidential election in November to ensure China complies with the terms of any trade agreement.

That latter saw US stocks pull back from record highs. The benchmark S&P500 traded over 0.1 per cent lower by the end of the session, on a day characterised by high market activity. The slightly negative day for US stocks backed up what was a relatively mixed Tuesday for global equity indices. Germany’s DAX and London’s FTSE100 scraped higher in European trade. While in the Asian session, Japan’s Nikkei climbed 0.73 per cent, and the ASX200 was the global outperformer, surging over 0.8 per cent yesterday.

Traders also homed in on the start of the US earnings season . Citigroup and JP Morgan released their results and both beat earnings estimates. Their strong results came in large part from better-than-expected trading revenues. The banking sector was one of the few positive performing sectors as a result. It climbed roughly 0.1 per cent, courtesy of a 1.2 and 1.3 per cent rally in JP Morgan and Citigroup shares, respectively.

Good morning. We’ve reached hump day.

Your editor today is David Scutt. 

This blog is not intended as investment advice.