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The ASX 200 is expected to open -0.09% lower this morning after a two-break from trading through the year’s Christmas celebrations and Boxing Day.
The Australian landscape will likely stick quite close to the U.S. moves, where thin trading after Christmas led most stocks on the biggest indexes on Wall Street lower; only tech excitement kept things edged in the green in the States.
The Dow Jones moved most positively, up just 10 points (+0.1%) in the U.S. afternoon.
While there’s been plenty of Chrissy hype around tech buying and electronics presents, heavwyeights in the sector were hit through the Xmas gap – chipmaker titan Nvidia slipped 0.1% while Meta dropped 0.5%. Amazon gave up 0.4% after sales and streaming leader Netflix shaved 0.7% through Chrissy.
There’s a slowdown Down Under in the days after Christmas, with Wildcat Resources (ASX:WC8) and RBR Group (ASX:RBR) among just over two dozen Aussie companies to make announcements through to 8.30am today.
With just one open ASX day – today the bourse stays open at its regular hours – few investors have fronted up to trade before the new year and trades will be thin.
It may also just be day punters may be a bit burned out on Christmas spending; Australian’s were being tipped to spend as much as $1.3 billion in the Boxing Day sales yesterday, with one in three Aussies heading out to the shops. If that doesn’t dent spending in the market this Friday by much, nothing ever will.
One area that may see movement is lithium, after law firm Allen tipped an “action-packed” year for dealmakers teeing up mergers and buyouts.
Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 62.2 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has stumbled slightly to $101 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $73.20,
Gold is trading at $2,634 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures are at $3.69 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.
