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Good Afternoon and welcome to Market Close for Tuesday of Week 2 of 2026, I’m Jon Davidson. Despite a party on Wall Street overnight the local market was perhaps nursing a Christmas hangover today, ultimately trending red in the latter half of the day.
We were trading south of 8,700pts at around 2.30pm Sydney time with the big banks helping to drag down the bourse despite a bonafide rally for the materials sector now running two days strong as gold, silver, copper, and even lithium all appear back on the menu. I have my reservations around lithium, but the first three are clearly good to go.
The world continues to shrug at the weekend’s Venezuelan incursion, or at least, those in markets do – especially oil traders; Brent remains at around US$61 per barrel; while we’re on the theme of resources, iron ore over in Singapore still fetching US$105/tn.
Later this week we get crucial US jobs data which could or could not influence the ASX, it’s a little hard to tell lately seeing as once-reliable golden thumb rules have now rubbed down to reveal a brass interior. At least it was an exciting day if you were in BlueScope steel.
Turning to companies in the green,
And starting with Bluescope – it looks like Kerry Stokes’ holdings company has coupled with a US firm to make a run at Bluescope Steel once again; Stokes is perhaps trying to do what Soul Pattison did with Brickworks to become firmly embedded in Australia’s market landscape. Only weeks after he sold channel Seven cheap as chips, too.
Elsewhere, Droneshield back in the top gainers after the US incursion into Venezuela re-ignited defence investors enthusiasm for likely counter-drone tech demand.
Finally, Hot Chili popped more than +11% on Tuesday as copper prices hit US$13,000 a tonne for the first time in history, underscoring the red metal’s ongoing relevance into 2026.
And what about the reds?
SILEX Systems fell over -30% after a green Monday too when it revealed the US gov’t Department of Energy had not selected the company for millions of dollars in funding to support uranium enrichment.
CALIX Ltd meanwhile fell over -12% after responding to a please explain from the ASX; the lithium-facing company saw heightened volatility in December, presumably as investors hunted for good lithium carbonate upside.
Finally, Metallium Ltd fell for a second day, even after on Monday confirming it had struck an e-waste recycling deal with Glencore that, apparently, wasn’t enough to keep investors content.
That’s Market Close for Tuesday, I’m Jon Davidson, have a great night and we’ll see you on Wednesday.
