ASX today − Australian shares are heading for yet another brutal selling run at open Monday after Trump warned he would “obliterate” Iran, should the besieged country not open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.
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The tail end of Week 12 had seemed like traders were becoming acclimatised to the U.S.-Israeli-led conflict in the Middle East, but Trump’s dramatic new stance has everyone skittish all over again. Not helping matters either is that the U.S. President had mentioned “winding down” the military operation on Saturday.
For Oz, that leaves us facing higher oil prices all over again; Tehran has all but choked the Strait over the last weeks, sending prices at the petrol pump soaring already.
With our current model seeing us import as much as 90% of our oil, it’s worrying, especially considering Energy Minister Chris Bowen recently revealed some six supply ships coming to bring us oil have since been cancelled.
We’ll get to commodities proper in a tick, but Brent crude up to $112/barrel and gold down to under $4,500 an ounce (USD) will both weigh heavily today.
Now, under that every so lovely Monday wake-up, let’s hit stock news.
ASX stocks to watch
First up, St Barbara (ASX:SBM) has become one of the first ASX-listed miners to start speaking about diesel supply. It has promised shareholders it can run operations at Simberi just fine for at least three months.
Alligator Energy (ASX:AGE) has successfully completed a Field Recovery Trial to test pattern pre-conditioning, with “initial concentrations of uranium flowing into the plant.”
Macmahon Holdings (ASX:MAH) has signed an LOI to restart operations at its Mount Carlton gold mine in Queensland. The deal with Wolfram will cover surface and underground mining for the next 33 months.
And just updating WK12’s big media pow-wow: ARN Media (ASX:A1N) says it will defend legal proceedings brought by shock jock Kylie Sandilands.
Judo (ASX:JDO) has picked up Westpac risk chief David Stephen as a director, too.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar is buying US 70c.
Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,
Iron Ore is up +1.1%, selling at $108.25 a tonne in Singapore today,
Brent Crude is +3.3%, at $112.19/Bbl,
Gold is selling at $4,509/ounce,
US natgas futures are down -2.2%, to $3.09 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck today.
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