ASX today – Another calendar year, same ol’ ASX. We’re just about to be two trading days into CY26 (after some eager traders made holiday moves on ‘day one’ last Friday), and already we’re staring at a fairly flat morning.
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The ASX 200 is now heading towards its first middling Monday of 2026, with futures suggesting we’ll see a -3.5pt dip – not much, really – at open.
And that’s despite the fact Trump and the U.S. swept into Venezuela in a long-brewing military operation that saw the North American superpower seize President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia, and fly them back to the States. Trump followed this up by declaring the U.S. will now run Venezuela and its oil industry.
I know, pretty big news to come back to with your first morning coffee in CY26 – and that may well be why it’s done little to any futures Down Under. (It did, however, drop Brent crude to around $60/barrel to today.)
It could be even simpler, too, though: Wall Street’s leading indexes finished pretty flat Friday, with the S&P 500 up +0.2% and the Nasdaq -0.1%.
And some may still be edgy on interest rates, which likely won’t become clear until everyone’s settled into CY26 proper and had a good look at the state of play there. In that regard, little has changed since late December.
Now, we’re all caught up – here’s the companies out the gates first in CY26.
ASX stocks to watch
No surprise, we’ll be watching companies in oil through Week 1, especially major players like Woodside (ASX:WDS), Beach Energy (ASX:BPT), and Santos (ASX:STO). Not much movement in futures, but long week yet.
Elsewhere, gold and silver miners remain close watches, too, after the precious metals held their late December rallies and still hover around all-time highs.
Vulcan Energy (ASX:VSL) is going through a leadership change right away, with Gavin Street stepping in as new chief to replace Rhys Jones. The outgoing boss will stay on Vulcan’s board, with Russell Chenu exiting.
New Frontier (ASX:NFM) is one step closer to a mining lease in Queensland, too, after state regulators gave its Big One copper deposit review approval.
And, Australian Agricultural (ASX:AAC) says flooding through north-western Queensland has hit three of its properties. “Our immediate focus is on our people and the welfare of our animals,” the rural company wrote today.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar buys 66.8 U.S. cents.
Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,
Iron Ore has started the year strong at $105.40 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is fairly flat at $60.75/bbl,
Gold is at $4,348 an ounce, and,
US natgas futures lost -0.7%, to $3.61 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck, happy trading.
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