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ASX today – We’ve been discussing it since Monday, but the supposed end to the U.S. gov’t shutdown is again moving markets. Australian shares are edging higher on sentiments that the whole thing will soon wrap up.
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The shutdown’s tipped end just has two hurdles to go: A House vote on Wednesday (in the U.S., of course) and then Donald Trump’s rubber stamp.
Traders like the whole narrative, clearly, considering every morning that it’s been in the headlines, we’ve seen green in futures. Both Monday and Tuesday faded somewhat after, though, so that may happen again today.
For now, however, the ASX 200 futures are calling a +0.25% advance. That tracks the S&P 500’s gains nearly exactly; the Dow Jones added way more, +1.2%.
The latter’s intraday performance has seen it eke towards a new all-time closing high, suggesting the CY25 rally we’ve been enjoying through much of the middle of the year may actually be firing in November.
Whether that means Santa and his rally are coming or not is still up for debate, but the wider sentiments do seem to be turning somewhat.
Now, let’s look at what’s up on the news wire this morning.
ASX stocks to watch
Bourse leader the Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) will look to recover some of its post-quarterly -6% dive yesterday, which was mostly spurred on by Matt Comyn’s admitting the big four bank faces “increased competition.”
One of those rising competitors, Macquarie Group (ASX:MGQ) is looking for funding for its latest U.S. acquisition, a $1B swoop that will see it walk away with a majority stake in glass beads producer Potters Industries.
Others are not going so crash hot: Westpac (ASX:WBC), NAB (ASX:NAB), and ANZ Group (ASX:ANZ) all reported lower profits. ANZ’s was down a hefty -10%.
Elsewhere, lithium stocks remain a close watch as spodumene prices soar. (More on this in the HotCopper Wire podcast episode out Thursday.)
For anyone wanting to jump into AGMs, there’s a whole heap today, too: Inghams Group (ASX:ING), Beach Energy (ASX:BPT), Domino’s Pizza (ASX:DMP), Humm Group (ASX:HUM), and Flight Centre (ASX:FLT) are on the docket.
Aristocrat Leisure (ASX:ALL) and Mainfreight (ASX:MFT) have results.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar buys 65.3 U.S. cents.
Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,
Iron Ore shaved -0.4%, to $101.70 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude added +1.5%, to $65.03/bbl,
Gold‘s back glittering again, today selling at $4,133 an ounce, and,
US natgas futures are up +4%, at $4.51 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck, happy trading.
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