After a downturn to start Week 3, things look to be turning around in Australia with ASX 200 futures pointing to a 0.5% rise – a gain of around 40 points – today.
Though it’s still under enormous pressure, the Aussie dollar ticked up slightly too.
Yesterday’s plunge was always going to be followed by a buying run eventually; that’s already started happening in the U.S. where Wall Street saw the Dow Jones bounce back higher and the S&P 500 recover through late intraday trading.
Only the Nasdaq composite, weighed down by Nvidia (which dropped 2%) and Apple (which lost 1.6%), stayed stuck mostly negative: It closed 0.8% lower.
China has been a little topsy-turvy too, with problems around its two-speed economy (strong exports coupled with poor local demand) leaving its markets hovering at somewhat of a middle ground. One hurdle Beijing is trying to navigate is China’s unprecedented $992 billion trade surplus which it piled up through 2024.
Back home, mystery Macau businessman Xhingchun Wang has picked up 158 million shares in the flagging Star Entertainment Group (ASX:SGR) – he’s been buying since September – to now control 5.52% voting rights.
Morningstar doesn’t think it will be enough to turn things around though: Analysts are predicting a 1:1 chance it will “all unravel” before long.
Global Lithium (ASX:GL1) is descending into civil war this week, with two board members moving to oppose chairman Dianmin Chen’s tilt at taking control. The inner-circle scrapping comes after Global Lithium’s board attempted to dissolve the 30-40% bloc led by Dr Chen over “covert Chinese influence” concerns.
In happier news Down Under, pharmaceuticals leader Telix (ASX:TLX) has declared 2025 will be a “transformative year” after the Victorian healthcare developer busted guidance with a 46% jump in December quarter revenue.
Nickel-copper explorer Legend Mining (ASX:LEG) has refilled its cash coffers after a long-agreed R&D refund – to the tune of $1.77M – came in this week.
Sun Silver (ASX:SS1) also landed an “exceptional” extensional intercept at Maverick Springs.
The Aussie dollar is buying 61.6 US cents – still around its weakest in five years.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has lifted again, to $98.90 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $80.83, ticking upward after more U.S. trade sanctions on Russia sparked global squeeze concerns,
Gold is trading at $2,669 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures are at $3.91 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.