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Good Afternoon and welcome to HotCopper’s Market Close for Tuesday of Week 3 of 2026, I’m Jon Davidson. Trump’s arrest threat to Jerome Powell was a bit of a non-event after all. US bond yields jumped but not dramatically, and what actually hurt more on Wall Street was Donny’s plan to cap credit card interest rates as he struggles to reclaim popularity.
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Anyway, Wall Street closed green, and on the back of that – and higher gold and silver prices, of course – the ASX200 had a solid Tuesday run, up over a percent at one point in arvo intraday trades.
Materials was the clear sector leader, up over 2% in the second half of arvo trades, energy leading laggards even as Brent Crude hit US$64 a barrel on the back of ongoing concerns around US intervention in Iran, and, the whole Venezuela thing.
At any rate, let’s look at what was green around the traps.
In the context of potential further US military action in Iran, defence stocks are back on the agenda, and the biggest news of the day in my mind when it comes to stockpicking is that Electro Optic shares are back above $11 each as that player yesterday acquired a counter-drone business. If that isn’t a direct stab at Droneshield, I don’t know what is.
Elsewhere, New Murchison Gold was the top gainer at one point intraday as that cheap gold stock jumped on the back of continued all time highs in the gold price, evidencing loud and clear appetite for exposure to the yellow metal isn’t going anywhere.
Finally, back to defence stocks, Austal Ltd continues to surge ahead as the beneficiary of government defence works broadly, from regular business to the AUKUS pact. In that context, the shipbuilder stock is, perhaps, too big to fail at this point.
And so what of the reds?
Arafura Rare Earths sold off in daily churn back below 30cps perhaps influenced by recent strength in Lynas, and, regular investor impatience as we’re still years away from seeing that company mine anything in the NT.
ZIP Co meanwhile fell over -6% in arvo trades likely influenced by Trump’s move to cap US credit card interest rates which has put jitters into the finance sector; though good-old profit taking likely to blame too, seeing as one week returns are up nearly +5%.
Finally, child cyber safety player QORIA Ltd fell over -8% based on no news and nearly $2M worth of trades. The name doesn’t pop up too often either on the top gainers or top fallers boards; 1Y returns are still above +20% even after Tuesday’s drop.
That’s Market Close for Tuesday, I’m Jon Davidson, have a fantastic evening and we’ll see you on Wednesday.
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