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The ASX 200 is tipped to rise as much as 1% at open today after Wall Street enjoyed another major “Trump trade” surge buoyed by year-end optimism.
The Dow Jones leaped 1.06% amid the U.S. jump, with the S&P 500 following close behind with a 0.53% rise – a trend the Aussie bourse will now follow for a green Friday. Only the Nasdaq composite stayed near flat, 0.03% up.
Interestingly, safe haven investments and stocks alike moved up overnight.
The biggest winner was Bitcoin, which busted past its latest US$99,000 record.
Much of the day’s hype – the best “Trump trade” bump since election day – came after several heavyweight U.S. companies reported fatter profits than expected.
Another metric that moved the marker was U.S. jobless data that released overnight; for many, the drop (to 213,000) signalled more resilient markets.
Back home, The a2 Milk Company (ASX:A2M) has told shareholders it will start paying dividends and has lifted revenue guidance after seeing stronger-than-expected sales – a boost helped on by dairy prices spiking globally.
Lovisa Holdings (ASX:LOV) will have a tougher time at its meeting today, with chairman Brett Blundy to be grilled over the company’s recent sacking of John Cheston. There may also, should 25% vote against the report, be a strike.
Other AGMs teed up for today include WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC), Kogan.com (ASX:KGN), Orica (ASX:ORI), and Megaport Limited (ASX:MP1).
There’s also a second Aussie bourse newcomer ringing the bell today: Fulcrum Lithium, which will list under ticker code FUL, is inked in to join the ASX at 10.30am Sydney time. The mineral explorer, which has been digging for lithium in Nevada, has issued 48.5 million shares at 20 cents a share to raise $10 million.
That float follows Symal Group’s (ASX:SYL) slightly slower ASX debut yesterday – though HotCopper users already have their eyes on the debutant today.
Forum users are also closely watching Altech Batteries (ASX:ATC) early on Friday.
Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 65.1 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore followed the day’s trend to lift to $101.95 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading 2% higher at $74.31,
Gold is at $2,670 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures are nearly 5% up, $3.35 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.
