Market Open: ASX heads lower in first session after Budget Day; US CPI worst in nearly 3 years

At The Bell – We’re one day removed from Budget Day, and it’s still more red for the Australian share market. The Budget wasn’t largely worrying, though Albanese’s government will spend an extra $18 billion over 2026-27, even after RBA governor Michele Bullock called for a spending curb.

Hear from all the ASX-listed companies that were at the RIU Resources Round-Up in Sydney, right here on HotCopper.com. Over a dozen interviews.

Then, over in the U.S., freshly released April CPI data has suggested State-side interest rates are likely to hold steady for the “foreseeable future.”

A surge in petrol and groceries costs has pushed America’s CPI to 3.8% in the 12 months to April. That’s the highest inflation the U.S. has had since it breached 4% nearly three years ago – and Wall Street wasn’t too happy, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite both dropping into the red in response.

That weakness will keep flowing down to Oz, too, with Jim Chalmers’ “most ambitious” budget and that U.S. panic both weighing. Right now, we’re looking at a roughly 20-point drop when the trading bell rings in Sydney.

Oil’s up too, on Trump heading to Beijing to speak to Xi Jinping, but we’ll cover that more once the two leaders actually sit down together.

ASX stocks to watch

In stocks, Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) has reeled in an unaudited quarterly cash profit of ~$2.7 billion, with higher lending and deposit volumes helping the blue-chip through multiple interest rate increases. The Big Four heavyweight said operating income was “broadly flat” during the quarter.

Elsewhere, Arafura Rare Earths (ASX:ARU) has drawn up an Offtake Term Sheet with North America’s Traxys, with Traxys to now supply the Gina Rinehart-backed Oz miner 500tpa Neodymium-Praseodymium oxide and 7.5tpa DyTb oxide each year.

Develop Global (ASX:DVP) is on the move, too, landing a $274M contract to lead underground development and production at Core Lithium’s (ASX:CXO) Finniss Lithium Project in the Northern Territory. At the same time, Develop is ending its deal with Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) in the Goldfields.

Black Bear Minerals (ASX:BKB) will start strongly, too, after updating its Independence project’s resource estimate to 2.2 million ounces.

Anglogold Ashanti (ASX:AGG) should share results today as well.

Buck and ore

In forex, the Oz dollar buys US 72.4c.

And to commodities, all in the greenback,

Brent Crude is selling at $107.50/Bbl, another +3.2% up,

Iron Ore is -1.5% weaker today; $110.10 a tonne in Singapore,

Gold is largely flat, $4,726/ounce, and,

US natgas futures -2.7%, to ~$2.83 per gigajoule.

That’s HotCopper‘s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – happy trading today.

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