Markets Overview
- ASX SPI 200 futures little changed at 7,268.00
- Dow Average up 1.5% to 35,467.44
- Aussie up 0.6% to 0.7154 per US$
- U.S. 10-year yield rose 6.3bps to 1.4874%
- Australia 3-year bond yield rose 0.5bps to 0.93%
- Australia 10-year bond yield rose 6bps to 1.60%
- Gold spot down 0.2% to $1,788.00
- Brent futures up 3.7% to $74.15/bbl
Economic Events
- 10:30am: (AU) Nov. Westpac Leading Index MoM, prior 0.16%
Stocks climbed after the biggest three-day drop since September amid appetite for risk assets. Treasuries fell.
President Joe Biden said he still has a chance to strike a deal with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin to get his roughly $2 trillioneconomic plan through Congress. He’s also considering lifting travel restrictions on people arriving from southern African countries where the omicron variant of coronavirus was first identified.
“The omicron’s potential damage to economic activity will be reasonably short and shallow,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities. “With household and corporate balance-sheets in good shape and sentiment still strong, we think it’s reasonable to expect that the economy will manage to navigate the rough waters.”
Earlier Tuesday, Credit Suisse Group AG’s global investment committee slashed its stocks allocation to neutral from overweight, citing increasing risks from the omicron variant.
Other News
More than a third of Australia’s largest listed companies have poor modern slavery disclosures, indicating they don’t understand the risks in their supply chains, according to a new report.
Monash University researchers analyzed the quality of 239 modern disclosure statements from ASX 300 companies, introduced after Australia created new laws to root out the problem, and graded each disclosure between A and F, in a report published Tuesday.
“Fail” grades were assigned to 36% of companies, according to the report, while only six companies were given a top mark.
The research indicated a clear divide between the biggest and smaller firms in the quality of their statements, lead researcher Nga Pham said in a statement.
“While a handful of the nation’s biggest companies revealed exemplary efforts to address modern slavery in their inaugural statements, many others barely complied with the basic requirements of the law,” she said. “This is alarming as we are not confident that these companies fully understand their exposure to modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains.”
Fortescue Metals Group and Wesfarmers Ltd. were among the nation’s leaders, while Nanosonics Ltd. and InvoCare Ltd. were among the worst, the report said.
“Modern slavery is one of the biggest human rights issues facing the world and as a leader in the resources sector, Fortescue recognizes our vital role in working collaboratively with our suppliers, government and the community to address this issue,” said Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Gaines.
Spokespeople for the other companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Large companies with relatively high employee numbers and supply spending had higher quality modern slavery disclosure statements, according to the report. The most common type of risks cited were forced labor, child labor and debt bondage, it said.
Australia requires some 3,000 companies that generate more than A$100 million ($71 million) in revenue locally — from miners to banks and fund managers — to assess and detail how they’re managing slavery risks within their supply chain and to outline steps taken to fix any issues.
It’s an acute risk for Australian companies given that two thirds of the nearly 25 million people estimated to be in forced and debt-bonded labor globally are believed to be in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the International Labour Organization.
