ASX 200 afternoon report: September 12, 2023

The ASX 200 trades 9 points (0.14%) higher at 7202 at 3.10 pm AEST.

ASX 200's winning streak and diverging confidence surveys

Overnight, the benchmark US equity index, the S&P 500, closed higher for the tenth Monday in a row. A statistic that has helped the ASX 200 close higher on a Tuesday approximately 80% of the time over the past two and a half months.

Enough reason for buyers in the ASX 200 to take advantage of early weakness to ensure that the ASX 200 was trading modestly higher by mid-afternoon, consolidating and building on yesterday's 35 points of gains.

Highlighting the uncertainty around the current economic climate, the release of business and consumer confidence surveys revealed diverging outlooks today.

The NAB Business Confidence index rose 2 points in August, its highest since January. Business Conditions strengthened 3 points to 13, well above its long-run average of 7.7.

In contrast, the Westpac Consumer Confidence index fell 1.5% to 79.7 as cost-of-living pressures and inflation concerns offset the benefits of the RBA staying on hold in September for a third consecutive month.

The ASX 200 market movements today

• Mining sector

At a sector level, an almost 4% rally in the iron ore price to $117.85 overnight has supported the share price of the iron ore giants.

• Rio Tinto added 1.69% to $114.30
• Fortescue gained 1.53% to $19.93
• BHP added 1.1% to $44.14

• Energy sector

The price of Uranium has climbed above $62 per pound to be eyeing the $64 level it fell from in April last year.

• Silex Systems gained 2.42% to $3.39
• Bannerman Energy added 2.10% to $2.43
• Deep Yellow gained 1.31% to $0.97c

• Financial sector

The big banks have edged as data showed banks in the US have recorded their most significant deposit outflow since the collapse of SVB.

• Macquarie fell 1.17% to $171.36
• NAB fell 0.28% to $28.97
• Westpac fell 0.23% to $21.50
• ANZ fell 0.20% to $25.23
• CBA fell 0.16% to $101.88

• The precious metals sector

The price of gold climbed above $1,920 ahead of tomorrow night's all-important US CPI print. Inflation at a core level is expected to rise by 0.2% MoM, which would see the annual rate fall to 4.3% from 4.7%. Headline inflation is forecast to rise from 3.2% to 3.6% YoY.

• Silver Lake Resources gained 1.6% to $0.95
• Perseus Mining gained 1.15% to $1.76
• Evolution Mining gained 0.95% to $3.71
• Northern Star Resources gained 0.94% to $11.29.

ASX 200 technical analysis

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, besides a five-day trading window in late July/early August and two days in early July, the ASX 200 has spent the past five months trading sideways between 7370 and 7050ish. We see no reason for that to change in the short term and expect further range trading over the next two weeks.

ASX 200 daily chart

• _{TradingView: the figures stated are as of September 12, 2023. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. This report does not contain and is not to be taken as containing any financial product advice or financial product recommendation.}