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ASX today – After a languid start to Week 2, Australian shares are rumbling into something akin to gains today on major U.S. indexes advancing and the Brent crude price actually shifting on Trump’s strikes against Venezuela.
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It had seemed like Aussie traders were shrugging at all the weekend’s surprise action, but it’s now looking more likely we were just slow to wake up.
The Aussie share market is now set to advance +0.4% higher at open today, per ASX 200 futures, with the Dow Jones’ +1.4% rocket – to a new high, no less – and hikes for both Brent crude and gold helping there.
Energy companies and U.S. weapon manufacturers have (no shock) climbed through the last 24 hours as the world takes stock of President Maduro’s capture, and while we have fewer war stocks, Energy is an Aussie cornerstone.
So, keep an eye there. Now, let’s look at other Tuesday morning news.
ASX stocks to watch
First up, BlueScope Steel (ASX:BSL) has confirmed receipts on a $13.2 billion takeover approach from Kerry Stokes’ industrials conglomerate, SGH, and its U.S. partner. The current standing, according to this morning’s reports, is that BlueScope doesn’t love the “lower” valuation on Stokes’ bid.
Elsewhere, uranium has been the week’s early flavour. Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) has already added +7%, while NexGen Energy (ASX:NXG) outpaced it, +8%. The whole sector has been helped by increased demand thanks to data centres.
(If you wanted to read a bit more on all that action, my colleague Jonathon Davidson took a deeper dive on the sector in a Market Link write-up just yesterday.)
And, HotCopper forum users are watching Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY) early after the explorer spotted high-grade gold intercepts up to 12.2g/t in several structures at its Bousquet project on Quebec’s ‘Cadillac Break.’
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar buys 67.1 U.S. cents.
Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,
Iron Ore has stayed fairly steady, +0.4% higher at $105.80 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude popped, climbing +1.7%,
Gold is at $4,449 an ounce, and,
US natgas futures have sagged -3%, to $3.50 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck, happy trading.
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