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ASX today – Australian shares are up for the first time this week, finally following Wall Street’s lead to add +0.5% in futures. Over in the U.S., things have been relatively green all week, and jumped again on November’s CPI release.
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That market-moving U.S. economic print saw core consumer prices up 2.6% in November, while overall CPI hiked 2.7%. It’s led to claims that the Federal Reserve’s plans to cut rates in January now have a “shot in the arm”; a fairly stark contrast to Down Under, where we’re expecting a hike as soon as February.
Wall Street is often the boss when it comes to global trade, though, and anyone who’d been hoping for some up arrows in Oz won’t be complaining today.
The Dow Jones added a modest +0.1% to close, but the S&P 500 bounced +0.8% and then the Nasdaq composite barrelled a whopping +1.4% higher. After four-day losses for the State-side bourses, Friday is the circuit breaker.
Keep an eye on Japan at 10.30am, though: The central bank there is tipped to raise rates to 0.75%, which stands in direct opposition to the Fed’s plotted easing. Their move may give our RBA some much-needed clues.
Before that rocks the boat (or doesn’t), we have stock news this morning.
ASX stocks to watch
First up, Meg O’Neill has become Big Oil’s first female chief executive, leaving her role at Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS) to take the helm at global giant BP. Woodside shares dumped as much as -2.7% after the news first broke.
Elsewhere, ANZ Group (ASX:ANZ) brass may yet keep their executive pay, even after a second straight shareholder “strike” at the company’s 4.5-hour AGM yesterday. Investors have made it clear they want blood for the bank’s many compliance failures; the board believes it can find a middle ground.
Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) has been left licking its wounds heading into Friday after a Honeymoon update sent BOE spiralling -24%. Updating a once-dovish 2021 outlook, the plant’s uranium is now said to occur at a lower grade. It’s also less contiguous and will likely be harder to extract, Boss says.
Amaero Ltd (ASX:3DA) has today banked a $4.6 million order for refractory powder from Titomic (ASX:TTT) as part of their newly-signed five-year partnership. These are expected to be shipped through Q3 and Q4 FY26.
And, Kalgoorlie (ASX:KAL) has extended Lighthorse’s mineralisation.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar buys 66.1 U.S. cents.
Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,
Iron Ore has strengthened another +1.3%, to $105 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is fairly flat at $59.72/bbl,
Gold is at $4,333 an ounce, and,
US natgas futures slipped -2.8%, to $3.90 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck, happy trading.
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