The Australian market is bravely fighting to end five straight days of losses, with the ASX 200 expected to open just -0.1% lower this Tuesday.
It’s been a rough few days for the local bourse, especially considering most other indexes around the world seem to be enjoying at least a partial Santa rally. Tech in the U.S. in particular has been surging, led by Tesla – Elon Musk’s “bet for the ages” regarding Donald Trump seems to have set it as an unbeatable winner.
Through the Wall Street wins, the Nasdaq composite – which is stuffed with tech stocks – has managed to break 22,000 points for the very first time. The S&P 500 managed modest gains too, while the Dow Jones fell 0.25%.
Similarly fuelled by Trump, bitcoin has barrelled up again, to a record US$107,000, after the President-elect again pledged to build a ‘strategic reserve’ for the cryptocurrency.
Also overseas, new economic data shared by Beijing has rattled oil prices after China – the world’s biggest crude importer – suggested it doesn’t need to buy so much.
Back home, question marks have been raised around the RBA adding two new board members to solely manage interest rates. Many still believe, despite the fact they start in March, the expansion means February will see cuts.
Westpac (ASX:WBC) chief financial officer Michael Rowland has confirmed he’ll be retiring in 2025 after five years in charge. Anthony Miller will succeed him.
DigiCo (ASX:DGT), the hot topic of the last few days, has found another defender after its early flop: top stockbroker Angus Aitken has blamed “instant gratification” on the data centre landlord’s failure. The $4 billion DigiCo portfolio did little to tempt day-to-day traders and its price has slumped to $4.30 a share.
The limp Friday float has actually gone as far as impacting HMC Capital (ASX:HMC), which backed DigiCo’s arrival; the asset manager is down more than 20%.
Amid that seemingly ambivalent feeling towards IPOs in late 2024, mining explorer Mount Hope Mining will today ring the bell; the Cobar Basin-focused miner is looking to raise $5M with shares at 20c. It will list with MHM as its ticker.
Elsewhere today, Orica (ASX:ORI) will squeeze its AGM in before Christmas.
Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 63.6 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has stayed relatively solid at $104.75 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading down 0.9% at $73.80,
Gold is trading at $2,659 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures have dropped to $3.22 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.