The Reserve Bank of Australia has kept the cash rate on hold at 4.35% at its meeting today. This continues a pause for the seventh consecutive RBA board meeting.
The decision – predicted by all four major banks – means the cash rate has remained steady since November 2023.
Investment bank analysts echoed these predictions, with Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and UBS all expecting the rate to remain on-hold.
The ASX200 has bounced back and was even trading up around 0.75% before paring gains back to a third of a percent at lunchtime.
Despite Wall Street’s S&P 500 losing 3% overnight, the Australian bourse is taking a break from yesterday’s heavy selling.
Oil has bounced back from 7 month lows after Libya halted production at their biggest field and fresh Middle East tensions. Brent has climbed to around US$78 a barrel after falling more than 5% in the previous three sessions.
Sectors today are a mixed bag, with Discretionary up around 1.3%, followed closely by Financials and Real Estate, both up around 1%. Energy has been heavily off down around 2% and Health Care is in red, down about 0.75%.
Company News
Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS) has been trading down more than 5%, not long after the Environmental Protection Authority cast doubt on the company’s Browse project in WA.
The company also revealed after close on Monday it’s set to acquire an ammonia project for $2.35 billion. The market reacted by marking down the stock.
Woodside is one to watch: it’s lost nearly 14% in the last month.
Woodside has been exchanging hands at $25.16.
Peninsula Energy (ASX:PEN) has been up more than 13.5% as the market celebrates news around its Lance Uranium project. The company announced Lance is set to enter production with a world class asset in a tier 1 jurisdiction.
Peninsula is in a strong financial position with $100 million in cash reserves.
Peninsula Energy has been trading at 9.2 cents.
Silver explorer Sun Silver (ASX:SS1) shares were down more than 4% at lunchtime as the company announced it’s booking Wood to assist with a grant application.
Sun Silver is aiming for a US$60 million dollar grant from the US government to build a silver paste facility in the United States to help make domestic solar panels.
Sun Silver last traded at 46 cents.