FX.co ★ New Zealand Stocks Muted But Heads for Weekly Gains

The NZX 50 index showed minimal movement, stabilizing around 13,375 in early trading on Friday, following gains in the previous session. Market participants are anticipating new data regarding consumer and business sentiment in New Zealand for October. This comes in the wake of a decline in consumer confidence in September and a dull business outlook. Additionally, investors are closely observing global trade conditions after the White House confirmed an upcoming meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month. This coincides with another round of high-level trade discussions set for this weekend at the ASEAN Summit. Notably, declines in the energy minerals and logistics sectors counterbalanced gains seen in producer manufacturing and industrial services. Despite this, markets are poised to record their first weekly increase in three weeks, gaining approximately 0.9% so far. This positive sentiment is largely fueled by expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will lower interest rates in its forthcoming meetings next week and in December. Specific stock movements included a 3.0% rise for Sky Network TV, a 1.9% gain for Serko Ltd., and a 1.2% increase for Ebos Group. Conversely, T&G Global fell by 2.6%, Channel Infrastructure by 2.3%, and South Port NZ by 1.6%.