ASX 200 afternoon report: 21 November 2024

The ASX 200 trades 18 points (-0.22%) lower at 8307 as of 2.00pm AEDT.

ASX 200 trades lower as Nvidia’s earnings underwhelm

The ASX 200 gave up 36 points (+0.4%) of early gains after Nvidia’s third quarter (Q3) earnings report, released post-Wall Street close this morning, failed to impress investors.

Despite Nvidia posting its fifth consecutive quarterly earnings beat, market enthusiasm quickly faded. Nvidia’s shares initially fell 5% after the earnings announcement before recovering slightly, ending 2% lower at $143.00 in after-hours trading. This weakness weighed on United States (US) equity futures during Asia-Pacific (APAC) trading.

The disappointment stemmed from Nvidia’s fourth quarter (Q4) revenue guidance of $37.5 billion, which missed the $41 billion forecast by some bullish analysts. Additionally, concerns about rising production and engineering costs for the new Blackwell chips have raised questions about profit margins.

Investors retreat amid geopolitical tensions

Following this week’s escalation in European geopolitical tensions and the ASX 200’s latest rejection from multi-month trend channel resistance, many investors have chosen to move to the sidelines.

ASX 200 stocks

Consumer discretionary sector

On Tuesday, the sector hit a record high of 3960, surpassing its mid-August peak. However, it has since dropped approximately 3% from those highs.

• Baby Bunting: fell 3.82% to $1.64
• Temple & Webster dropped 3.3% to $11.44
• Myer lost 2.9% to $1.00
• Kogan down 2% to $4.87

Technology sector

Nvidia’s disappointing report weighed on local IT stocks.

• DroneShield’s fall from lofty heights continued as it fell 4.64% to $0.72c
• Afterpay owner Block lost 2.35% to $138.54
• Zip down 1.26% to $3.14
• Xero edged 0.58% lower to $172.84

Mining sector

Iron ore prices edged higher towards $102.00 on the Singapore futures exchange, lifting some miners while other mining stocks struggled.

• Fortescue gained 1.94% to $18.09
• Rio Tinto up 0.2% to $116.10
• BHP slipped 0.77% to $39.77
• Mineral Resources fell 1.53% to $34.17

Gold mining

Gold stocks saw gains as bullion rebounded above $2650 per ounce.

• Gold Road Resources jumped 3.4% to $1.89
• Northern Star Resources climbed 2.87% to $17.55
• Evolution Mining rose 1.2% to $5.00
• Perseus Mining increased 0.95% to $2.66

Banking sector

The big banks delivered mixed performance.

• CBA down 0.36% to $155.80
• Macquarie flat at $229.96
• Westpac gained 1.36% to $33.48
• NAB and ANZ both up 0.60%

ASX 200 technical analysis

After Tuesday's failed break higher, the ASX 200 has returned to the safety of its multi-month upward-sloping trend channel. While this represents a setback for the local market's upside prospects, we do not view this week's rejection as critical unless the ASX 200 falls below the support band between 8200 and 8100.

A sustained break above the trend channel resistence, currently near 8390, remains essential to confirm an upward move towards 8600.

ASX 200 daily chart

• _{Source: TradingView. Figures are as of 21 November 2024. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. This report does not contain and is not to be considered as containing financial product advice or financial product recommendations.}