Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) and Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) shares jumped again today.

Woodside shares leapt 2.31%, while Santos shares jumped 1.95%. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) climbed 1.65% today.

Let’s take a look at what impacted these two energy companies today.

What happened?

Woodside and Santos are both major oil and gas producers.

US natural gas futures surged as much as 10% to a two-week high overnight in America.

Despite record output, cooler weather and predictions that demand would be higher than expected impacted the market, Reuters reported.

In other news, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) lifted its forecasts for world oil demand on Monday. OPEC believes $12.1 trillion of investment is required to meet global demand, Reuters reported. OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said in quotes cited by the publication:

The overall investment number for the oil sector is $12.1 trillion out to 2045.

However, chronic underinvestment into the global oil industry in recent years, due to industry downturns, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as policies centred on ending financing in fossil fuel projects, is a major cause of concern.

WTI crude oil is currently up 0.81% to US $87.23 a barrel, while Brent Crude Oil is down 0.98% to US $94.83 a barrel, according to Bloomberg.

Woodside advised last week it delivered record production of 51.2 MMboe in the third quarter of 2022, up 52% on the previous quarter.

Santos meanwhile, delivered third-quarter production of 26.1 MMboe, up 12% on the second quarter.

Share price snapshot

Woodside shares have exploded 68% year to date, while Santos shares have risen 24%.

For perspective, the ASX 200 has fallen 6.28% year to date.

The post Why did Santos and Woodside shares outperform the ASX 200 today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• These ASX 200 energy shares are leading the market higher on Tuesday
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Tuesday
• Are Woodside shares the ‘most loved’ among the ASX energy giants?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Monday
• ‘Some market trends are now entrenched’: Why this expert tips greatness for Santos shares

Motley Fool contributor Monica O’Shea has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) share price has been on a tear in recent weeks. Flight Centre shares gained an impressive 18% or so over the month of October. Indeed, the company is up more than 20% since 3 October.

And yet, Flight Centre is still on the most-shorted ASX shares list. Just yesterday, my Fool colleague James covered the ASX’s most short-sold shares. And there Flight Centre was. In the number one position with 15.3% of its share count shorted.

So why might this be the case? Well, in simple terms, there are still many investors (or a few with deep pockets) betting that there is more pain ahead for the Flight Centre share price.

Short selling works by allowing investors to borrow shares and sell them with a promise of returning that same number of shares to the original owner at a later date.

If the share price of the shorted share falls during this borrowing period, the short seller makes money. It can be thought of as the opposite of investing in a company, sometimes called ‘going long’.

Why are Flight Centre shares getting short-sold?

So Flight Centre’s presence on the most shorted list tells us that there are significant investors out there who are anticipating the company’s shares are in for a rough time over the next few months at least.

Until October, Flight Centre shorters would have been doing very well. Between the start of 2022 and 3 October, Flight Centre shares dropped around 25% in value. Even after the stellar month the company enjoyed during October, the ASX 200 travel share remains down 9.7% in 2022 thus far.

Perhaps some investors are anticipating the travel sector isn’t in for as rosy a recovery as some suggest.

As we covered last week, booking statistics have reportedly shown “an influx of new business travellers in the construction, engineering, and healthcare sectors”.

Construction workers are reportedly Flight Centre’s ” third most important source of passengers”. So it’s almost certainly good news for the company that business travel in this industry has grown by 145% against the numbers seen in 2019.

So perhaps short sellers are missing something?

Looking at Flight Centre’s calendar, the company is scheduled to hold its next annual general meeting later this month on 14 November. It’s possible short sellers are betting that the company will have some bad news to tell the markets at this AGM.

Whatever the reasons for this company’s high short-seller interest right now, only time will tell if this pessimism is well founded.

In the meantime, Flight Centre has just closed at a share price of$16.92, up 1.62% for the day.

The post Why are Flight Centre shares still the most shorted on the ASX? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Here are the 10 most shorted ASX shares
• If you’d spent $1,000 buying Flight Centre shares at the start of October, guess how much you’d have now
• Why is the Qantas share price so volatile today?
• Could this tailwind fuel Flight Centre’s share price into the future?
• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today

Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Flight Centre Travel Group Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) gained on Tuesday as the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) hiked interest rates once more. The index closed 1.65% higher at 6,976.9 points.

The RBA lifted the nation’s cash rate by 0.25% to 2.85% at its November meeting in a bid to crush soaring inflation. That was in line with the more dovish prediction thrown around by analysts, with others tipping a 0.5% hike.

The Australian consumer price index (CPI) rose to a 32-year high of 7.3% in the September quarter.  

And the RBA doesn’t appear to be done yet. It flagged further rate hikes in coming months while inflation is forecast to peak at around 8% later this year.

Back to the market, the S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) led the way today, gaining 2.6%.

The S&P/ASX 200 Energy Index (ASX: XEJ) was hot on its tail, lifting 2.1% despite falling oil prices.

The Brent crude oil price fell 1% to US$94.83 a barrel on Monday while the US Nymex crude oil price dropped 1.6% to US$86.53 a barrel.  

The S&P/ASX 200 Utilities Index (ASX: XUJ) and the S&P/ASX 200 Real Estate Index (ASX: XRE) both also outperformed, lifting 2.5% and 2.1% respectively.

At the end of Tuesday’s trade, all 11 of the ASX 200’s sectors were higher. But which share outperformed all others? Keep reading to find out.

Top 10 ASX 200 shares countdown

The top-performing ASX 200 share today was none other than Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU).

Stock in the healthcare favourite jumped another 11% today, adding to the 6% surge it posted on Monday on the back of a clinical trial update.

Today’s biggest gains were made by these shares:

ASX-listed company	Share price	Price change
Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU)	$0.195	11.43%
Nickel Industries Ltd (ASX: NIC)	$0.785	7.53%
United Malt Group Ltd (ASX: UMG)	$3.30	6.11%
Graincorp Ltd (ASX: GNC)	$8.88	6.09%
Adbri Ltd (ASX: ABC)	$1.67	6.03%
Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1)	$6.44	5.75%
Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG)	$15.50	5.44%
Ramelius Resources Limited (ASX: RMS)	$0.775	5.44%
NextDC Ltd (ASX: NXT)	$8.77	5.41%
Pinnacle Investment Management Group Ltd (ASX: PNI)	$8.57	5.28%

Our top 10 shares countdown is a recurring end-of-day summary to let you know which companies were making big moves on the day. Check in at Fool.com.au after the weekday market closes to see which stocks make the countdown.

The post Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Here are the 3 most traded ASX 200 shares on Tuesday
• Why is the Dreadnought share price struggling despite successful drill program
• Why Graincorp, Nanosonics, NextDC, and Readytech shares are racing higher
• Why is the Zip share price up 5% on Tuesday?
• These ASX 200 energy shares are leading the market higher on Tuesday

Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended MEGAPORT FPO and PINNACLE FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended PINNACLE FPO. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended MEGAPORT FPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG) share price was on form on Tuesday.

The investment bank’s shares rose 1.5% to $172.00.

This means the Macquarie share price is up almost 4% since this time last week.

Can the Macquarie share price keep rising?

The good news for investors is that the team at Morgans believes the Macquarie share price can keep rising from here.

According to a recent note, the broker has responded to Macquarie’s half-year results by retaining its add rating with a trimmed price target of $214.30.

Based on the current Macquarie share price, this implies potential upside of almost 25% for investors over the next 12 months.

In addition, Morgans is forecasting a partially franked 4% dividend yield over the next 12 months, stretching the total potential return to approximately 29%.

What did the broker say?

Morgans was pleased with Macquarie’s half-year results. It commented:

MQG’s 1H23 NPAT of A$2.3bn was +13% on the pcp and 9% above Bloomberg consensus (A$2.15bn). We would describe MQG’s 1H23 result as a solid, clean performance, with the company again finding a way to better market expectations, highlighting the strength of the franchise. We lift FY23F/FY24F EPS by 1.2%/0.2% reflecting slightly improved earnings forecasts across most divisions. Our PT is largely unchanged. We maintain our ADD call with >10% TSR upside to our price target.

Outside the result, the broker likes the company due to its exposure to structural growth areas and believes the Macquarie share price is trading at an undemanding level. It concludes:

MQG is a quality franchise, well exposed to structural growth areas, and the company is managing a more difficult FY23 environment well. With MQG’s share price having pulled back since the start of the year, we see its current PE multiple of 14.5x as undemanding given the sustainable competitive advantages of the business.

The post Broker tips Macquarie share price to rise 25% appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Leading brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy today
• Is the Macquarie share price a buy following the banking giant’s latest results?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Monday
• Is the Macquarie share price in the buy zone? Here’s what Goldman Sachs thinks
• Everything you need to know about the super-sized Macquarie dividend

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Macquarie Group Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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