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If you wanted to feel like you were re-living the festivity season for the XJO that was October, look no further than today’s top gainer boards. I’m going to betray HotCopper here and use Market Index’s top gainer status, but I used to work there too, so like, it’s hardly even that bad.

What month is it again? (Market Index a/a 2.55pm AEDT Tue 16/12)

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We’re looking at the top 3 stocks here. Droneshield and EOS you already know about if you’re a daily market watcher, if you aren’t, they’re the two gems of the ASX defence sector and both posted contract wins this week. But like both companies, 4DX – a next-gen lung imaging player – also has a market cap far, far above revenues. In fact, the latter currently boasts $1.5B as market cap, and it’s basically pre-revenue.

Underpinning 4DX is that its scanners have been taken in for lung-imaging clinical use by both the University of Miami and Stanford University; 4DX’s tech was also cleared for use in Canada yesterday. So it’s true to say optimism is priced in for all 3 stocks.

And that’s another way of saying that we’re risk-on, baby. Let’s hope it lasts. Elsewhere, looking at sectors:

Sector breakdown a/a 3pm AEDT Tue 16 Dec 2025. (Market Index)

Tech jitters continue, oil prices down on OPEC supply cuts and a lack of the kind of geopolitical risk that oil saw a few years ago (or, indeed, perhaps geopol risk fatigue among traders.) At any rate, gold’s still running hard, and even an uptick in iron ore prices on the SGX wasn’t enough to save sentiment.

I imagine we’ll see this status quo remain more or less in place for the rest of the year. With that said, this is also my last Market Close until January next year, because I’m taking three weeks off.

So enjoy the break, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, and have a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays or have fun getting drunk at midday or whatever the hell it is you do. I am actually so tired of talking about the stock market it isn’t funny.

That said, feel free to shoot me an email at jonathon.davidson@themarketonline[.]com[.]au if you think there’s something big that happens over the break I should know about (I won’t be looking), or if you’re an Invictus Energy holder who wants to send me a death threat, it wouldn’t be my first, and honestly I find them thrilling.

(Fun fact: the HotCopper offices once received a bomb threat, but that’s going back a few years now. We also sold our office, so, there’s that.)

Good luck, be nice to your families even if they don’t deserve it, and most of all, be nice to yourself. Ta ta for now!

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