Market Open: Wall Street chip surge sets running pace; Labor to intervene on AI boom

At The Bell — Australian shares are just inching into the green in futures on Tuesday morning, up under five points, as cagey ASX 200 traders finally decide they want to get back on the U.S. chip rally that has been brewing.

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We just had a middling Monday to start Week 28, which I suggested early might have been because Oz equity traders were scared to move without their Wall Street pacesetter. That largely turned out right, unfortunately, and without a lead, Aussie shares drifted into a fairly unremarkable 13-point fade late.

Now that the U.S. is back from its trading break (for Independence Day), things are moving a little more again – though still quite lumbering Down Under.

Looking over there, chip hype has been pushing things higher: The Dow Jones has been +0.3%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both pushed around +1% higher. London’s FTSE and the wider Euro Stoxx both down.

Maybe it’s not totally come to us on the markets yet because Anthony Albanese just said Labor is investigating safeguards and “interventions” on AI in Australia. That would be enough to pull the hype handbrake, I’d say.

Not quite trading-related, too, but many’ll also be watching China after its navy successfully test-launched a strategic missile from a nuclear submarine.

No huge macro weight from that yet, but it should push the “fear” dial.

ASX stocks to watch

In stocks, it’s all about bids and buy-ups this week, and that’s not even counting the big Regis-Genesis bidding battle. IFM Investors has made a hostile bid to buy Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX); it now holds 60% of stock, while Macquarie (ASX:MQG) has bought logistics group Qube Holdings (ASX:QUB).

Over in insurance, a North American conglomerate lobbed a $4.7B bid at broker Steadfast Group (ASX:SDF), while wider, the Barrenjoey–Magellan deal is still on the boil, as is Swiss-based PE group EQT’s hunt for Perpetual.

And, an update on the gold headliner: Regis Resources (ASX:REG) has yet to respond to Genesis’ $12.6 billion Vault Minerals (ASX:VAU) approach.

We have a new debutant on the bourse today as well, with Neu Horizon Uranium staging a float from 12PM. Neu Horizon – ticker “NHU” – is a mineral explorer based in Sweden and Canada, and is looking to raise $15M at 20cps.

Finally, Pioneer (ASX:PMM) has finished surveying its Springfield targets.

Buck and ore

In forex, the Oz dollar is buying US 69.5c today,

Then to commodities, all in the greenback,

Brent Crude remains in the dumps early in Week 28, fetching $72.04/barrel,

Iron Ore is +0.6% stronger, selling at $98.40 a tonne in Singapore,

Gold steady, $4,169/ounce, and,

US natgas futures soft, $3.2 per gigajoule.

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

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