Morgans AM: Friday, 12 August 2022

Morgans Financial Limited

US equity markets erased earlier session gains to settle with modest losses, running out of steam in the closing hour of trading despite another reassuring inflation report - Dow edged +27-points or +0.08% higher. Walt Disney Co gained +4.68% after the media and entertainment giant reported its second quarter result after the close of the previous session, adding more streaming subscribers than expected and announcing plans to launch an ad-supported tier while increasing prices on its current offerings before the end of the year. Investment banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc (up +1.08%) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (+1.48%) also continued to trade strongly. The broader S&P500 dipped -0.07%, with the more defensive sectors (Health Care down -0.71%, Real Estate -0.55%) among the key underperformers overnight. Energy (up +3.19%) sat atop the primary sector leaderboard following a strong session on crude markets. Heal The Nasdaq lost -0.58%. Bloomberg reported late in the session that Apple Inc (down -0.44%) is requesting that its suppliers "build at least as many" of the company's new iPhones as they did last year. The report said that Apple also continues to expect suppliers to build ~220M total iPhones for the year, which is roughly equal to last year's figure as well. Bloomberg noted that the report suggested confidence on the part of Apple executives that the company would be able to withstand economic challenges and still drive strong demand for its devices. The small capitalisation Russell 2000 rose +0.31%.