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Australian shares are being tipped to open all but flat this Wednesday morning, just 3.6 points lower in futures, despite Wall Street being hit with a wave of selling in the index-leading technology sector.
This scrape into the red (or basically just yellow, at this stage) threatens to derail what had been building as a nice little January rally for the Aussie bourse.
The panic-selling in the U.S. came after data from the Institute of Supply Management suggested the services sector had expanded again; a growth investors seem to have read as inflation accelerating. Trump’s focus on tariffs – which he re-pledged yesterday – will likely play a leading role in that either way.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was the worst hit, losing 1.9%. It was dragged down by chipmaker Nvidia, which lost 6.2%. Tesla also barrelled 4.1% lower.
Bitcoin too was similarly impacted; the cryptocurrency slipped to US$96,402.
Australia seems to have (for the time being) escaped some of this sell-off though as those involved in the market Down Under await other data – we’ll get November’s CPI data from the ABS around 11.30am Sydney time today.
Most are expecting headline CPI to have stayed at 2.1% year-over-year in November; it had dropped to that figure in October when last reported.
Also at home, Wisetech (ASX:WTC) has started its 2025 with a bang, acquiring trade management solutions provider ImpexDocs. The deal will see WiseTech now digitise and automate international trade workflow, especially at CargoWise. How much the Impex acquisition cost was not disclosed.
Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) has today updated its electronic banking terms, leaning responsibility to get refunds directly onto customers. The update comes after The Aus reported it had failed to disclose other account changes.
Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) has been marked as one to watch in the HotCopper forums too after the $1.9B gold miner reported a record cash and bullion build in the December quarter.
MTM Critical Metals (ASX:MTM) too is celebrating this morning after achieving “further breakthrough efficiencies” with using its FJH tech in rare earth processing.
Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 62.3 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore is selling at $96.75 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $76.99,
Gold is trading at $2,657 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures plunged again, to $3.44 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.
