Sector movers: Telecoms, precious metals miners on the back foot

(Sharecast News) - Telecoms services providers were at the bottom of the pile in the middle of the week following a disappointing update out of sector heavyweight Vodafone. "How Vodafone must be ruing the decision to reject the €11bn bid by Iliad for its underperforming Italian business, which felt like a mistake at the time, although there has been talk in recent months that talks are still going on," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

"Vodafone has made progress on reducing its debt which has fallen by almost 20% to €33.37bn, however investors seem less than impressed with today's announcement."

Precious metals miners also moved lower with gold and silver futures down as the Greenback caught a bid.

June gold futures fell 1.02% to $2,002/oz. on COMEX with the US dollar spot index edging up 0.17% to 102.61.

Helping the US dollar perhaps and offsetting mixed readings for industrial production and retail sales in April were the latest remarks from top Fed officials.

Among them was Richmond Fed chief Thomas Barkin who reportedly said that he liked the fact that the monetary authority has the optionality to either pause or hike rates in June.

Also in the dollar's favour was a spate of weaker-than-expected Chinese activity data for the month of April that were released overnight.

Linked to the above, analysts at SP Angel noted that data showing Chinese exports up by 56% year-on-year over the three months to March had raised alarm bells - as it spoke of weakness in domestic refined demand.

They also cited Reuters reports according to which funds had turned negative on copper since March with short positions up by 68% for the largest bear position since August 2022.

In the background meanwhile, investors were keeping close tabs on the debt ceiling negotiations between President Biden and Congressional leaders scheduled for Tuesday.

Top performing sectors so far today

Retailers 3,859.38 +1.52%

Automobiles & Parts 1,715.83 +1.03%

Aerospace and Defence 6,423.87 +0.88%

Medical Equipment and Services 11,080.82 +0.77%

Household Goods & Home Construction 12,028.53 +0.62%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Telecommunications Service Providers 2,279.82 -5.16%

Life Insurance 6,846.10 -1.68%

Precious Metals and Mining 11,247.79 -1.34%

Chemicals 11,367.25 -1.22%

Oil, Gas and Coal 8,219.44 -1.15%