Market Open: The Oz economy is now slowing down, and Iran just attacked Kuwait

At The Bell — Australian shares are set to open lower this morning, after Iran and the U.S. restarted hostilities. These attacks were centralised around Kuwait, where Tehran’s forces staged drone strikes against the city’s main airport – over a dozen missiles launched, one dead, and 63 injured, reports say.

Hear from all the ASX-listed companies that were at the RIU Resources Round-Up in Sydney, right here on HotCopper.com. Over a dozen video interviews here.

The Kuwait assault shook Wall Street overnight, leaving all three major indexes there in the red, and Oz shares are following suit: Down -0.9% in futures.

Yesterday’s economic print hasn’t helped Aussie either, with more and more analysts now warning a slowdown “is coming.” GDP rose just 0.3% in the March quarter, and that only covers the first month of the Middle East war.

More data on that front coming just before lunchtime, with April’s trade data being shared at 11.30AM AEST. That may well compound the worry.

And to watch: RBA governor Michele Bullock and her two assistant governors, Sarah Hunter and Christopher Kent, will front the Senate Economics Legislation Committee just before close. They’ll speak on Chalmers’ Budget.

ASX stocks to watch

Now, let’s look at the morning’s stock news. Here, 4DMedical (ASX:4DX) continues to be the watch of the week after it locked in a U.S. radiology deal, a European-based acquisition, and started clinical programs. Founder Andreas Fouras says that’s the lot, for now, but HotCopper users will keep hoping.

Elsewhere, Black Bear (ASX:BKB) has dug up “exceptional” high-grade silver and polymetallic mineralisation at Shafter in Texas, and Advance Metals (ASX:AVM) has had a similar victory at Gavilanes, finding a “very broad” silver zone.

Elixir Energy (ASX:EXR) is testing at Lorelle-3H today too, measuring reservoir pressure and collecting “critical” data to support multi-stage stimulation.

And, Treasury Wine Estates (ASX:TWE) is holding an investor day today.

Buck and ore

In forex, the Oz dollar buys US 71.2c.

Then to commodities, all in the greenback,

Brent Crude is up, adding +1.2% on U.S. attacks, to $97.21 today,

Iron Ore is down -1.5%, at $103.65 a tonne in Singapore,

Gold down, $4,445/ounce, and,

US natgas futures up, ~$3.24 per gigajoule.

That’s HotCopper‘s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – happy trading today.

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