Speaker 1: It's always a very very busy time for accountants and bookkeepers. Now,
Speaker 1: many of you might use Zero software in your business,
Speaker 1: but it's not just your work affairs. The company has
Speaker 1: its own right now. After making a full billion dollar
Speaker 1: move to get even more stuck into the US markets,
Speaker 1: the software platform has paid US two point five billion
Speaker 1: dollars to acquire Mellio Pavement Payments, which is US market
Speaker 1: share for its business delivering accounts, payable and receivables. Like Zero,
Speaker 1: Melio targets small and medium sized businesses, with the move
Speaker 1: expected to triple the North American revenue of Zero, which
Speaker 1: it currently has most of its business coming out of
Speaker 1: Australia and New Zealand. Of course, it is in New
Speaker 1: Zealand business, so we really can't take the claim for it,
Speaker 1: but it is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Due
Speaker 1: to the ongoing nature of the announcement, Zero was placed
Speaker 1: in a trading halt today but last traded at one
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety four dollars twenty one a share, with
Speaker 1: a market cap of almost thirty billion dollars. Let's check
Speaker 1: in on the rest of the markets today and.
Speaker 2: Now on Money News. The market landlords think your sprita
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Speaker 1: After some significant volatility on the markets in the last
Speaker 1: couple of days, the action was a little bit more
Speaker 1: sedate today as tension to the Middle East, we're a
Speaker 1: little bit more subdued. Sitting near flat for most of
Speaker 1: the session, the ASX two hundred closed up just three
Speaker 1: point seven points to eighty five hundred and fifty nine.
Speaker 1: Financial stocks yet again set the tone as good inflation
Speaker 1: numbers came in CBA shares reaching a new intra day
Speaker 1: high above one hundred and ninety two dollars a year,
Speaker 1: eventually closing up one point seven percent to one hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety one dollars. Forty. Defense platform Drone Shield said
Speaker 1: to today investors keep an eye on me because as
Speaker 1: signed a new contract in Europe with more than six
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars. It's the largest single order in the
Speaker 1: company's history. Shares were boosted by more than twenty percent
Speaker 1: to two dollars fourteen and after a successful IPO yesterday,
Speaker 1: Verge in Australia continued to soar, rising by another three
Speaker 1: point four percent, trading at the close at three dollars
Speaker 1: thirty four. On the other side of the course, it
Speaker 1: was the materials and energy sectors feeling the most pain,
Speaker 1: with I OR futures dipping below ninety three dollars US
Speaker 1: a ton BHP four one percent four to street down
Speaker 1: two point three percent. But Rio Tinto recovered from earlier
Speaker 1: losses to only drop point six percent to one hundred
Speaker 1: and four dollars thirty a share, and as the need
Speaker 1: for a safe haven withdrew, investors looked towards gross stocks
Speaker 1: instead of gold as the spot price for the medal
Speaker 1: dropped to three thousand, three hundred and thirty US announce
Speaker 1: and gold mine as Northern Star Resources, Evolution Mining, and
Speaker 1: Newmont all took a hit. But while the market was
Speaker 1: unusually quite compared to lately, there's still a huge amount
Speaker 1: to unpack, and I'll do it on out with Carl
Speaker 1: kapelinga senior editor at Market Index. Carl, great to have
Speaker 1: you on the show on this Wednesday night.
Speaker 3: Good Evening's gott great to be here, Carl.
Speaker 1: The inflation numbers were a surprise today, and as Dana
Speaker 1: Messina said, to us before this time it was on
Speaker 1: the downward side, but the market didn't really react at all.
Speaker 1: In fact, even after the rate cuts we literally priced
Speaker 1: into the market, nothing really happened. Was that a surprise, Well,
Speaker 1: well it was.
Speaker 3: A surprise number, so it was better than we expected.
Speaker 3: But it probably only changes the timing of the next
Speaker 3: cut nice and much how many we'll get. I mean,
Speaker 3: I think we're pretty sure we're going to be closer
Speaker 3: to three percent by the end of the year than
Speaker 3: four percent. We're going to be July, not August, and
Speaker 3: I think that's what changed. But you know, if you
Speaker 3: scratch beneath Cervia even show, you said there were some
Speaker 3: stocks that did well. The socks it didn't do well,
Speaker 3: and that's that means the index over all even out.
Speaker 3: But banks had a good date to date. I mean,
Speaker 3: they're obviously going to be a beneficiary for you know,
Speaker 3: it means you to pay our mortgages and we're going
Speaker 3: to take more mortgages out and consumer to grosery stocks.
Speaker 3: We'll have more money in our pocket. Theory, So there
Speaker 3: were parts of the market that did well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good point, Carl, because it could possibly
Speaker 1: speed up more loans into the market and potentially more refinancing.
Speaker 1: So once again we talk about another record for the
Speaker 1: Cornwall Bank and good performance overall whole finance and banking sector.
Speaker 1: So how are brokers and fund managers reacting to this juggernaut.
Speaker 3: Well, I guess you've got Yeah, you've got brokers and
Speaker 3: some analysts that are concerned. There's probably the right word
Speaker 3: about some of the banking valuations. So we've had one.
Speaker 3: We've got a sister site, Live wire Markets that had
Speaker 3: an interview recently. One of the same fund managers said
Speaker 3: he'd rather stick pins in his eye Scott than by
Speaker 3: CBA at current levels.
Speaker 1: Now, well, if you want to write down what price
Speaker 1: he said that at with the amount of ETF money
Speaker 1: coming in there calling them as well.
Speaker 3: It's much higher. Look, it's much higher, and it is
Speaker 3: frustrating them. They're underweight and it keeps going up and
Speaker 3: that makes it harder for them to meet their obviously
Speaker 3: their performance goals. But I look at it personally. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm of the opinion that the trend is your friend
Speaker 3: into a Benz and hasn't not bending yet, so I'm
Speaker 3: happy to stay there. But as you say, it's pension money.
Speaker 3: It's global pension money. You've got a lot of big
Speaker 3: global banks as well. They're also rising. You can't just
Speaker 3: look at what's happening in Australia think You've got to
Speaker 3: look broader and say, well, this is a this is
Speaker 3: a wave. There's a wave of money coming in for
Speaker 3: these things and you really don't want to get in
Speaker 3: the way of it. But the big question is whether
Speaker 3: we can both two hundred on CBA. It's in the
Speaker 3: one nineties. Only six other stocks are there on the
Speaker 3: A six, so it'd be nice to see the CEO
Speaker 3: can make it.
Speaker 1: Yes, with Maccrurie the only diversified financial services above two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars and it could be emerging on that price.
Speaker 1: But as you said, you said about the wave their Carl,
Speaker 1: and it really is a tale of two sectors at
Speaker 1: the moment, and over in the West you'd be hearing
Speaker 1: stories about weaker resources. Now, I know the market is
Speaker 1: sickly cool, but I'm really surprised at the gap between
Speaker 1: financials and materials. So what's your outlook.
Speaker 3: Well, there's okay where everybody's focused on the war in
Speaker 3: the Middle East, but there's still a trade war raging,
Speaker 3: and that's what I think the big fun flowers are
Speaker 3: still focused on, and they just rather be elsewhere than
Speaker 3: sectors that are still going to be impacted to. I
Speaker 3: think we've got a ceasefire in the Middle East, we
Speaker 3: don't really have a seat fire on the other front
Speaker 3: just yet, so we know China is going to still
Speaker 3: have some seriously onerous tariffs directed at it by the US,
Speaker 3: even despite the talks that we had before the Middle
Speaker 3: East flow up, and I was the resources the coal
Speaker 3: face no pun intended of that economy's performance, and we
Speaker 3: are seeing the direct result of that in nearly our
Speaker 3: twelve buffalos on Betch p Rio fort Es qu A
Speaker 3: lot of the coal companies got belted today funding we're
Speaker 3: talking about coal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's a bit of a relief for the
Speaker 1: main newsed team that we didn't have to report on
Speaker 1: the threat of all tonight. But defense companies continue to
Speaker 1: be popular and the rise of drone shield has been
Speaker 1: outstanding and another deal today had its surging So what
Speaker 1: do you know about it? And is this sect that
Speaker 1: something investors should literally be keeping their close eye on.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, that's one of my favorites. Actually, it's one
Speaker 3: I follow very very closely. If any of your listeners
Speaker 3: read any of my stuff, it's one that has been
Speaker 3: doing very very well and there's no reason why it
Speaker 3: can't in the current environment. So you've got obviously drones
Speaker 3: which are flying around doing the damage, and then you've
Speaker 3: got counter drone measures, which is where drone shield is
Speaker 3: focused on dealing with that threat. And they've got a
Speaker 3: range of you know, sort of the soldiers can wear
Speaker 3: these certain guns and weapons that can take out the drones.
Speaker 3: They've got sort of anti drone countermeasures, intensive radars and
Speaker 3: things like that. But you know, look with the UK, Europe,
Speaker 3: the US, they've all recently announced major, major spending initiatives
Speaker 3: in this area. But it's not just drone shields. It's
Speaker 3: just one of several very very strong defense socks. You've
Speaker 3: probably had no idea we had a defense industry over here, Scott.
Speaker 3: That l site is another one. They're more focused on
Speaker 3: driving the drones themselves. Electro optic systems. These guys do
Speaker 3: remote weapons systems, lasers, tracking missiles in space and potentially
Speaker 3: them down. Very very topical at the moment, and the
Speaker 3: share prices of those again, there's a couple of ETF
Speaker 3: as well d FND and ARMR. IF listeners want to
Speaker 3: write scripblebase down and they're going to give that those
Speaker 3: et is going to give a mix of local and
Speaker 3: international defense docks as well, So very very strong area
Speaker 3: of the market.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have talked about that on Money News, both
Speaker 1: with deb Knight and myself in the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: That's Carl Kaupling, senior editor at Market Index. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for your insight on this Wednesday night.
Speaker 3: Good one, Thanks Scott.
Speaker 1: Turning to the currency markets and the doll experience some
Speaker 1: weakness at the close this afternoon to be back just
Speaker 1: below sixty five us NS. One dollar is also worth
Speaker 1: forty seven per point seven British pens, just under fifty
Speaker 1: six euro cents, ninety four Japanese yen, and is pushing
Speaker 1: back up to a dollar eight. New Zealand