Markets Live: ASX jumps back over 6000 after US jobs data

The listing would cap a remarkable rise for what Gil started as a specialist microcap equities research house in 2006 before moving into funds management in 2009. The move coincided with the start of a highly profitable bull market for microcap investors.

Microequities now has $442 million in funds under management (as at December 31), split across four open-ended equities funds and a handful of closed end fund such as its $25 million venture capital trust.

The deal values Microequities at 11.2-times last year's profit. Last year was a particularly strong one for the manager, thanks to a big increase in performance fees. And in the absence of FY18 forecasts, the question is whether the sugar hit is repeatable.

There will be plenty of industry interest in Microequities' fee structure and particularly its performance fees. Three of its four mainstay funds are subject to 20 per cent annual performance fees on a 5 per cent absolute hurdle, and management fees at around 1.8 per cent.

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Mr Lew, through the ASX-listed Premier Investments, has been waging war on Myer since buying a 10.8 per cent of Myer in March, 2017 at $1.15 a share but an alarming downturn in sales and profits at the department store group has sent the share price languishing to around 43¢ and resulted in it being removed from the S&P/ASX200 index.

Globe, which sells skateboard equipment, streetwear and a fast-growing brand of fashionable workwear called FXD, has experienced solid gains to $1.25, from $1.04 a year ago in a business where margins have been growing.

Poly Town has been on the share register of Globe International for 14 years.

Globe is controlled by three Hill brothers, who own a combined 69 per cent and fund managers believe it is a prime candidate for a privatisation because of a lack of liquidity and a tightly-held share register.

That was underlined a week ago when Stephen Hill, one of the founders of the company, acquired an extra $44,000 worth of Globe shares on market to lift his holding for the first time since March 2015.

Stephen Hill now holds 30.3 per cent of Globe, up from his previous stake of 30.21 per cent.

Simon Evans reports

Nippon Life Insurance agreed to acquire a 5 per cent stake in DWS in the IPO at the issue price. The offering values the asset manager at 6 billion euros to 7.2 billion euros, with the first day of trading expected on March 23.

A successful offering of DWS after a surge in market volatility would mark an important achievement for Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer John Cryan, who proposed the sale a year ago to help bolster the lender's capital.

The unit - headed by Nicolas Moreau - will also gain more independence and flexibility for acquisitions at a time when firms are under pressure to expand in the asset-management business.

"Key attractions" of DWS are its diversified portfolio across many asset classes and global scale, Barclays analyst Daniel Garrod wrote in a client note in late February. A return to net money outflows and failure to cut costs are major risks to the business, he said.

The unit has also had a mixed performance across regions. While assets under management in Germany have been increasing, with a particularly strong jump in the second quarter of last year, its US funds have yet to recover from massive outflows suffered in 2016.

DWS has about 700 billion euros under management and was expected to be worth between 6 billion euros and 8 billion euros once it trades, people familiar with the matter had said before the announcement.

- Bloomberg

US markets closed out the week with strong gains as the S&P500 jumped 1.7 per cent after the jobs data indicated that wages are contained and that the Fed is likely to keep raising interest rates at its previously-indicated rate.

In Australia, both of the market's heavyweight sectors - the banks and miners - gained ground on Monday. BHP climbed 2.5 per cent, CBA rose 0.7 per cent, ANZ lifted 1.2 per cent and Rio TInto advanced 2.5 per cent.

Gold miner Newcrest fell 4.8 per cent, however, after it detailed that it will likely downgrade its gold production guidance after a slip in a dam wall at one of its mines.

McGrath shares were down 2.3 per cent after the property group cut its full year earnings guidance by half.

In the latest review, three of those measures – Australia's debt-service ratio, household debt service ration and cross-border claims – are coded amber, meaning they exceed a threshold that points to a high risk of a banking crisis in the coming years.

Central bankers failed to spot the 2007-09 global meltdown in banking and have since looked at ways to spot future crises earlier and take preventive action.

Combining indicators with movements in property prices improves the performance of indicators and, when applied to economies today, they point to the build-up of risks in a number of countries, the BIS review said.

The study looked at the credit-to-GDP gap, the debt service ratio, household debt service ratio, and cross-border claims to GDP.

Australia flashed amber in three of the four areas, while Canada flashed red in two and amber in the other two. China and Russia flashed red in two areas.

Hyun Song Shin, the BIS' head of research, cautioned however that tougher bank capital rules introduced since the crisis should be taken into account, and that amber or red warnings were only a starting point for a closer look at vulnerabilities.

"Overall, the February payroll print is likely to be interpreted by markets as a Goldilocks print — not strong enough to encourage a move higher in rate hike pricing but not weak enough for markets to price out hikes," TD Securities head of global macro strategy Michael Hanson and two colleagues said in a note.

"The market was pricing in 3 rate hikes in 2018 and 1.5 hikes in 2019 into the meeting, and this pricing is unlikely to change materially in the near-term," the TD strategists said.

That more dovish outlook for rates, or that the US Federal Reserve is lifting rates at the right pace, encouraged investors to leap back into US equities.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 440 points, retopping the 25,000 point mark in a broad rally. The Dow's gain was 1.8 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 1.7 per cent and the Nasdaq closed 1.8 per cent higher.

Volatility was relegated, with the VIX dropping 11.5 per cent to 14.64 — its lowest since February 1.