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Good morning and welcome to the RBA ‘cut’ call watch – it’s all basically waiting through to 2.30pm in Sydney today, as Australian traders hold their breaths and their trades ahead of the RBA’s rate call decision this arvo.
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Sentiment has shifted towards the RBA chopping rates in August being a “done deal,” which would relieve borrowers (and investors) after July’s hold.
The ASX has all but priced that in, and futures are teetering flat early this morning.
There’s no guarantee the Reserve Bank drops the basis points until it all happens, though, so most are sitting on their hands until that all-important 2.30pm release.
Outside today’s big RBA wait, traders are also waiting to see how Trump’s latest tariffs play impacts things in the U.S. and beyond; Trump extended a snap pause on Beijing’s impending levies for another 90 days in a “positive” signal.
For Wall Street, it meant a drop of up to -0.5%, with the Dow down the most.
Shanghai, meanwhile, enjoyed a +0.34% hike on Trump’s tariffs pause.
In Oz company news, it’s all eyes on lithium again on the HotCopper forums following CATL motballing a huge mine in Jiangxi province. Regulars like Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) and Pilbara Resources (ASX:PLS) bounced.
JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH) is looking for a new boss after Terry Smart confirmed he’d be leaving in October; he shared an AI-themed report before his goodbye.
And, Seven West (ASX:SWM) and Life360 (ASX:360) are among those reporting.
(There’s a new HotCopper Wire podcast episode on all the above coming out today, too.)
More market news
Propped up: Oz likely to get commodity supports, but don’t expect Trumpian flair
Before the call: RBA’s inflation trick: Is the number lying to us?
To forex, the Aussie dollar buys 65.1 US cents.
And to commodities, all in the greenback,
Iron Ore is up +1.4%, selling at $103.55 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is at $66.68,
Gold is down, selling at $3,350 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures are down -0.6%, to $2.97 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck and happy trading.
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