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Aussie markets are being tipped to trend lower through Thursday morning, following slumping U.S. markets after the Federal Reserve said it was in “no hurry” to dish out further rate cuts in the new Donald Trump regime.
The local bourse will dip at least 2.4 points, losing around 0.03% at open.
Things had been headed green most of the night before Jerome Powell spoke on the Fed’s position in the U.S.; his cautious tone left most markets skittish.
“We don’t know what will happen with tariffs, with immigration, with fiscal policy, and with regulatory policy,” Jerome Powell said on Wednesday.
Conversely, the European Central Bank has heralded it will likely trim again next meet.
Back home, Sigma Healthcare (ASX:SIG) shareholders have voted overwhelmingly positively on the mooted merger with Chemist Warehouse. The $30 billion merger next needs Chemist Warehouse’s tick too – that meeting is at 6pm.
Elsewhere, TPG Telecom (ASX:TPG) has made a $1.6 billion network sharing deal with Optus that TPG boss Inaki Berroeta says will end the “bush tax” he claims Telstra (ASX:TLS) has been pushing onto regional Australians.
Quarterly reporting continues to ramp up today too: Karoon Energy (ASX:KAR), Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR), IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO), Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL), Zip Co. (ASX:ZIP) all have updates through Thursday.
Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) has already shared its report, confirming it has maintained its 2025 financial year guidance for all its operations.
Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 62.2 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has leapt as much as 1.04% to $104.70 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $76.75,
Gold is trading at $2,761 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures are at $3.18 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.
