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ASX today – The ASX is expected to open on a positive note today after Wall Street turned in a strong performance overnight.
ASX SPI Futures were up about 0.75% to around 9,008 points prior to markets opening, while the Australian dollar continues to rise against its US counterpart.
Overseas, Wall Street bounced back strongly as easing treasury yields helped quell interest rate hike fears.
The Dow Jones was up more than over 600 points, while the S&P 550 also performed strongly after US Federal Reserve governor, Christopher Waller, appeared to favour keeping interest rates steady if upcoming inflation data remained positive.
The tech sector was boosted after market powerhouse Nvidia had agreed to acquire AI platform Hugging Face for US$13 billion. That news helped the Nasdaq move up by 1.40 per cent to 26,584.06 points.
Oil prices held overnight with Brent crude sliding back to $94.6 per barrel.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Methanex Corporation has entered into an agreement to sell substantially all of its New Zealand natural gas contractual entitlements commencing in the first quarter of 2027 and continuing through the end of the decade when those entitlements expire.
Given the continued decline in domestic natural gas availability and the lack of a clear pathway to meaningful new supply, Methanex has determined that continued operations in New Zealand are not sustainable and as such has taken steps to optimise value from its remaining gas position there.
As a result of this agreement, the company expects to indefinitely idle its New Zealand production facilities during the first quarter of 2027.
On the market news front:
Everest Metals Corporation (ASX: EMC) has named Hall Chadwick as strategic adviser for the Mt Edon rubidium project in Western Australia;
Firefly Metals (ASX: FFM) has completed a $180 million equity raising;
Neometals (ASX: NMT) has obtained high-grade gold assays at Ironclad;
Tartana Minerals (ASX: TAT) has commenced an operational review after its board stoush; and
Stanmore Resources (ASX: SMR) agrees to acquire Moranbah South from Exxaro for US$105 million.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar is buying US$0.720
Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,
Iron Ore was up 1.74 per cent to $99.42 per tonne in Singapore today,
Brent Crude was down 1.01 per cent to $94.663 per barrel,
Gold was selling at $4473.63,
US natgas futures were down 0.87 per cent to $2.9302 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Colin Sandell-Hay – happy trading.
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