It feels like we will be at the mercy of how Donald Trump and the U.S. roll out their trade war tariffs over the next few weeks and months – and Monday and Tuesday this week have already proven that quite quickly.
Today, ASX 200 futures are pointing to a 0.7% gain after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum asked Trump for a delay on tariffs; Trump agreed.
The U.S. President also suggested he’d “probably” speak to China in the next 24 hours.
It was a mixed bag for Wall Street after the ongoing tariffs talks: The Dow Jones reacted favourably and moved as much as 0.04% higher, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite continued their trends into the red.
All this has seen investors rush to get their hands on safer investments and gold has been the biggest winner – the ‘safe-haven’ metal touched US$2,830 overnight.
Conversely, Trump’s flip-flopping has spooked punters away from crypto and it dived.
On a fairly similar note, the slumping Aussie dollar is buying 61.8 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has slipped 1.2% to $104.40 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $75.63,
Gold is trading at $2,831 per ounce after briefly touching a new high last night, and,
US natgas futures are at $3.34 per gigajoule.
One thing to note as we head later into the week too is that Aussie reporting season is upon us again. Companies like Pinnacle (ASX:PNI) and Amcor PLC (ASX:AMC) are booked in to get things underway early tomorrow.
Then, over the next two weeks, we’ll see companies sharing exactly how much money has come through the door – or vice versa – up to February 28.
In company news Down Under, Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) has picked up a new high-grade antimony project that has produced in the past.
Win Metals (ASX:WIN) has also had success with its Butchers Creek drilling.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.