The ASX 200 is pointing down this morning and is tipped to lose as much as 0.4%, down to 8,407 points – a soft Thursday decline that doesn’t quite match the hype Wall Street is enjoying right now around AI and tech stocks.
Even as Oz falls, the S&P 500 has dialled in another intraday high, touching 6,100 points.
The index spike came after Netflix blew away its subscriber projections, thanks in part to Squid Game 2. Trump’s bullish AI “Stargate” initiative was another driver.
While it didn’t manage to crack that record high at the closing bell, the S&P 500 did still wrap up well in the green; it added 0.6% to its value. The Dow Jones followed, up +0.3%, while the tech-laced Nasdaq composite surged +1.28%.
Back home, Myer (ASX:MYR) has arrived at decision day: Shareholders will be voting on a merger with Premier Investments’ Apparel Brands at 9am in Melbourne.
While not quite carrying the same magnanimous weight as Myer’s meeting, there are a number of other Aussie companies on the update docket today too, ranging from heavyweight miners to financial specialists.
Through the day, we’ll see quarterly reports from:
- Alcoa Corporation (ASX:AAI)
- Core Lithium (ASX:CXO)
- Coronado Global Resources (ASX:CRN)
- Fortescue (ASX:FMG)
- Insignia Financials (ASX:IFL)
- Karoon Energy (ASX:KAR)
- Netwealth (ASX:NWL)
- Regis Resources (ASX:REG)
- Santos (ASX:STO)
- Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX)
In reports already on the trading desk, Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR) has acquired lithium rights over Yalgoo, Egerton, and Dalgaranga from Firetail Resources (ASX:FTL) – the three-project WA deal cost Spartan $250,000 in cash.
Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) has also wrapped up its share purchase plan; the $5.85-a-share placement raised the renewables provider $164 million.
Things have turned again for Star Entertainment (ASX:SGR) too, with the casino’s safe harbour adviser preparing its lender group for a possible voluntary administration.
Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) also copped a double downgrade from Citi and Macquarie.
Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 62.7 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has held in its climb at $103.85 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $78.95,
Gold is trading at $2,763 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures are at $3.98 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.