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At The Bell – The ASX is forecast to open slightly lower this morning after Wall Street provided mixed results overnight with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at a record high of 54,349, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.2% to 7,724 and the Nasdaq fell 0.8% to 26,363.
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The Dow was powered by a range of impressive earnings reports with strong profits underpinning a strong stock-market performance.
On the other side of the coin positive reports on the potential reopening of the Strait of Hormuz were undercut by concerns about AI reporting results.
A tipped fall this morning would come after the S&P/ASX 200 closed at a 52-week high gaining 82.00 points or 0.90% to 9,227.80 yesterday,
Away from the markets, the Northern Territory’s Environmental Protection Agency (NT EPA) has commenced prosecution against the Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG project.
Under its licence, Ichthys LNG s required to annually report total emissions to air in tonnes to the NT EPA.
In October 2025, Ichthys LNG informed the NT EPA of significant under-reporting of emissions from the Ichthys LNG facility.
The NT EPA’s charges relate to failure to comply with a condition of the licence by under-reporting benzene and toluene emissions between 2019 and 2024.
The investigation that led to the decision to prosecute is part of a suite of regulatory responses to address Inpex’s under reporting and broader management of hydrocarbon activities in Darwin Harbour including the NT EPA’s announcement last week recommending strengthening licence terms and conditions of LNG facilities to ensure human health risks from air emissions are adequately addressed.
Meanwhile, international resources research specialist Wood Mackenzie’s mid-year review found that the metals sector has largely weathered the Middle East shock.
The company said what the mid-year metal sector review found most striking was how contained the damage to metals and mining has been.
“The clearest evidence sits in aluminium. At the height of the conflict, the disruption was expected to generate a supply deficit of between 2.5 and 3.0 million tonnes. The revised expectation is approximately 900,000 tonnes. Approximately 32% of global direct reduced iron production was also affected, though this remains a small share of overall global steel output,” said Peter Schmitz, director, Global Markets Research, Wood Mackenzie.
“The sector has so far absorbed a significant shock with more composure than most expected.
“The concern now is what the numbers do not yet fully show: inventories depleting, cost pressures building slowly, investment decisions deferred, and demand reorienting away from China. A 900 thousand tonne aluminium deficit and slight copper surplus are hardly comfortable figures. They are just not as uncomfortable as they might have been.”
On the company news front:
Chilwa Minerals (ASX:CHW) reported that drilling has hit shallow mineralisation at Mpyupyu West prospect;
Black Bear Minerals (ASX:BKB) has identified increasing silver grade from historic core at the Shafter project in Texas;
Somerset Minerals (ASX:SMM) has confirmed a new high-grade copper-silver discovery at Talisker;
Kaoko Metals (ASX:KAO) has kicked off drilling at Chalkos; and
Panther Metals (ASX:PNT) has defined multiple nickel-copper targets at Red Flag.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar is buying US$0.7056
Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,
Iron Ore is up 0.22% to $93.91 per tonne
Brent Crude was up 9.86% to $79.400
Gold is selling at $4247.40 per ounce
US natgas futures were down 1.91% to 2.6699 USD/MMBtu
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Colin Sandell-Hay – happy trading.
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