ASX Market Open: Oz shares heading for W50 weekly gains with Friday rally | Dec 12

ASX today – The third-last week of CY25 may actually end on gains after originally falling through most days, with a late-on Friday rally set to heave up the Australian bourse. Heading into open, futures are +1% higher.

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If you’d asked where Week 50 was going to end on Wednesday arvo, the main answer would have been “red” – until the Fed trimmed U.S. rates.

Now, even with both our RBA and the State-side Federal Reserve suggesting there may even have to be rises through CY26, traders have taken Thursday’s easing as a sign we can have a little Santa Rally to end the year.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones even managed to beat an Oracle-led technology dump through the Wall Street day, ending +0.2% and +1.3% higher, respectively. Only the Nasdaq composite really suffered, -0.25%.

And, so, heading into Friday close, things are looking up.

With that all in mind, here’s W50’s last stock news.

ASX stocks to watch

First up, there’s growing speculation that BHG Capital will soon submit a takeover offer for Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB). Should the equity firm move before the Chrissy holidays, it will be because it wants Webjet’s $110M cash pile.

Elsewhere, the ACCC has rejected Insurance Australia Group’s (ASX:IAG) grand plans to buy the Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia for $855 million.

And, Dexus (ASX:DXS) has bought into Westfield Chermside for $683 million.

In mining, Black Cat Syndicate (ASX:BC8) is one of two ASX explorers making project moves today, acquiring strategic tenements near Lakewood.

The other is GreenX Metals (ASX:GRX). GreenX has this morning activated an option to acquire 90% of Group 11, which holds several Tannenberg licences. The move hands Greenx “enormous upside” in Germany.

Buck and ore

Now – in forex, the Oz dollar buys 66.6 U.S. cents.

Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,

Iron Ore gave back its rise, down -1% to $101.75 a tonne in Singapore,

Brent Crude dumped -1%, to $61.56/bbl,

Gold is at $4,282 an ounce, and,

US natgas futures lost -8% this week, to $4.22 per gigajoule.

That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck, happy trading.

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