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It’s looking like another swing upward today for the Australian share market, with early morning ASX 200 futures pointing to a 0.16% gain – mostly due to increasingly dovish sentiments around impending CPI numbers.
Tuesday’s DeepSeek scare seems to be behind Wall Street now, with the U.S. markets bouncing back into the green – by a lot too – through the last trade day.
The S&P 500 tech sector, in particular, surged back to life with a 3% rise.
Nvidia, left bloody and bruised after the AI selloff yesterday, returned 6.8% to its value.
Back home, key economic data will soon be hitting our desks: Local CPI data is to be released at 11.30am Sydney time. Early analyst tips are suggesting inflation has cooled faster than the Reserve Bank predicted late last year.
Reading between the lines, that could set up an undeniable February rate chop.
Helping that cause too is the Federal Reserve, which is now in session for its two-day deliberations. If it cuts, Oz’s central bank may have to follow suit.
The big day is here for Sigma Healthcare (ASX:SIG) and Chemist Warehouse; the two companies are hosting shareholder meetings today at 2pm and 6pm, respectively. The merger vote will be formally tabled at both. “Yes” votes are likely.
Star Entertainment Group (ASX:SGR) may have found an escape route too, with New York dealmakers from Cerberus Capital Management approaching the sinking casino to buy a chunk of its $400 million debt. Should they pull the trigger, it could clear the way for an eventual debt-for-equity swap.
In other company news, Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU), Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC), 29Metals (ASX:29M), Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX), BCI Minerals (ASX:BCI), and Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) are all sharing quarterly reports today.
Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 62.5 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has dropped 0.09% to $103.55 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $77.60,
Gold is trading at $2,769 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures are at $3.37 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.
