The ASX200 has spent much of the day trading down around six tenths of a percent after the KOSPI sold off on Tuesday following scares around a Chinese microchip science breakthrough which then spread to Wall Street overnight.
But the big tell will be what happens tonight with US CPI data. Wall Street futures are largely flat heading into 4pm AEDT close on the ASX, likely suggesting caution from traders ahead of that data drop.
President Trump’s recent diesel offtake deal with none other than Russia underlines the panic in Washington ahead of the midterms as Donald Trump remains deeply unpopular outside his core base.
Wall Street, being Wall Street, will probably reward an expectation beat more than it will punish a miss; but after the CPI data is released, it’s possible we might see AI and tech become the focus again on the back half of the US session overnight.
Time will tell.
Looking around the traps at home, we’ve had some big news today:
Rio Tinto declared it has boosted copper production by 30% at its mine in Mongolia and the Simandou iron ore project – a risk to Australia’s overall economic health in the long-run – has hit a run-rate of 10Mtpa;
Glencore started trading on the ASX today;
Paladin Energy fell after declaring that the cost of producing uranium has increased US$10/lb over the last three months;
Core Lithium produced is first spod concentrate in the Sept quarter since restarting Finniss earlier this year, and,
IAG has tried to appease the ACCC with its plan to acquire RAC WA’s insurance business; though a sell off of IAG shares had more to do with financials getting slammed on Wednesday.
All of Australia’s big 4 banks fell in the Wednesday intraday session, leaving us without much help like on Tuesday when a +2% jump in CBA offset another large pullback in materials.
Pray for a decent US CPI. Until tomorrow!
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