FX.co ★ New Zealand Stocks Inch Higher

In early trading on Thursday, the NZX 50 experienced a slight uptick, stabilizing around the 12,778 mark. This follows a rather uneventful previous session, despite Wall Street's S&P 500 achieving another record close on Wednesday. Investor sentiment was buoyed by anticipation of a potential interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve, possibly as soon as next month, coupled with generally positive corporate earnings reports. In China, New Zealand’s main trading partner, the government outlined plans to subsidize consumer loan interest over the next year, with 90% of the costs shouldered by the central government and the remaining 10% by provincial authorities. Domestically, there's a 90% expectation among markets that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand will reduce its 3.25% cash rate by 25 basis points at the upcoming meeting next week. However, gains were somewhat restrained due to cautiousness preceding the release of New Zealand's food inflation data for July and the business PMI figures scheduled for Friday. The consumer and energy minerals sectors led the charge, with significant advances by companies such as Sky Network TV (up 2.0%), Restaurant Brands NZ (increasing by 1.7%), Channel Infrastructure (up 1.4%), and Delegat Group (rising 1.3%).