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Good Afternoon and welcome to HotCopper’s Market Close for Wednesday of Week 2 of 2026, I’m Jon Davidson. As we crossed into the second half of arvo trades it’s looking like we could evade a fade on the bourse today, especially seeing as the latest inflation data’s in, and we got a cooler read than expected.
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The question remains open as to whether the RBA will start treating as gospel its new month by month inflation basket data drop, or if until that gets established, a quarterly read will still secretly be what’s considered more important. That we won’t know until next month when we get CPI data for December, which could then be turned into a quarterly read.
At any rate, analysts are roughly split on whether or not we see a hike from the RBA at its next meeting, or, if we pause rates where they are until later in the year. But looking at the XJO on Wednesday, an eventual hike could be priced in.
Anyway, IT led the gainers today up just south of +2% while energy led laggards down over -2% as the oil price continues to settle after the Venezuela boogaloo on the weekend. Materials was up as silver is back to US$80 an ounce, gold remains elevated, and copper is hitting new records. Iron ore hit US$108/tn in Singapore, somehow, and later this week, US jobs data.
Let’s turn to companies in the green.
Emerging market darling 4DX Medical, which is maybe the new Droneshield, surged on Wednesday as a third university health campus adopted its lung imaging tech, but to date, the company has a market cap of $2.5B but no actual money flowing in the doors.
Dateline Resources meanwhile is back on a tear up over +20% in arvo trades as hopes re-ignite Donald Trump might namedrop the company on Truth Social once again, or at least provide some funding.
Finally, Lynas Rare Earths continues to climb eyeing off $15 a share now as rare earth traders kick off the year with gusto.
And as for the reds,
Southern Cross Gold fell alongside Bellevue Gold on Wednesday; Southern Cross revealed fresh drill hits on Tuesday which could point to profit taking while Bellevue sold off on a quarterly production update; perhaps investors are eyeing off West African Resources, which hit an all time high today.
Beach Energy meanwhile, another Kerry Stokes backed venture, fell just south of -5% in the latter half of arvo trades as low oil prices and a general lack of excitement compounded down the price.
Finally, looking at Harvey Norman, that stock down -4.5% in arvo trades as a broker note from Jeffries downgraded the company’s price target to $7.60.
That’s Market Close for Wednesday, I’m Jon Davidson, have a great night and we’ll see you tomorrow.
