Market Open: US activity may impact ASX mood early

ASX today – Will the ASX follow the lead of the US market which closed up before the weekend.

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While the ASX was down on Friday, Wall Street appeared to be fighting off the ongoing Middle East concerns with the S&P 500 up 0.80% at 7,165.08 as the market set a new record high last week.

However, punters will be monitoring whether investors will rush into assets like the US dollar, gold and bitcoin after another shooting event involving the US president over the weekend.

US market watchers are also awaiting news from the Federal reserve of any inflation concerns.

Locally, ASX punters are hoping the local market takes some security from the bullish US investors.

With the ASX unusually opening on a day where half of Australia is still remembering the Anzac weekend, the ASX is coming off a soft week which saw the ASX200 finish the week roughly 2% down.

However, in a positive note prior to the local market opening, the ASX 200 indices was up slightly to 8740.1 as we prepared to go to press.

Oil movements in the Strait of Hormuz continue to dominate energy prices.

According to Bloomberg data, only two chemical tankers and an LPG carrier were observed leaving the Persian Gulf on Friday, with only four oil tankers seen moving through the area over the previous seven days,

Brent oil was up 12.57% for the week to US$107.531 per barrels.

In interesting news for local hydrocarbon producers, a new report has found Australia’s oil and gas industry would deliver almost $160 billion in taxes and royalties to governments over the next five years if high international prices persist under existing tax settings.

The new independent analysis by international research firm Wood Mackenzie comes at a time when the Australian gas industry is under attack for not paying enough tax – despite providing almost $22 billion in taxes to governments in 2024-25.

Early resource sector announcements from the ASX included:

Dalaroo Metals (ASX: DAL) and Solara Minerals (ASX: SLA) separately successfully completing soil sampling at Bondoukou and Wilgeena respectively;

Western Mines Group (ASX: WMG) landing a $250,000 EIS award for Mulga Tank;

Infinity Mining (ASX: IMI) competing a farm-in and strategic technical alliance in Victoria; and

Green & Gold Minerals (ASX: GG1) commits to hunting high-grade copper, silver and indium at Copper Hills

Buck and ore

Now – in forex, the Oz dollar continues to maintain value against the US dollar, sitting at A$0.714142.

Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,

Iron Ore was up slightly to $107.05.

Brent Crude gained 2.2% overnight to US$107.531 per barrel.

Natural gas is heading in the opposite direction. down 6.28% for the week to US/MMBtu 2.5222.

Gold was selling at $4,695.60 per ounce.

That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Colin Sandell-Hay – happy trading.

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