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At The Bell — Australian shares are set to post their seventh straight day in the red on Wednesday morning, -0.3% in futures right now, as traders Down Under brace for what should be a pretty hairy inflation read.
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The ABS is releasing data on monthly CPI at 11.30AM this morning, and this one is widely expected to show inflation spiking at about 4.8% in the March quarter. That would be its highest in nearly three years, and would then force the RBA board’s hand on raising interest rates when they meet Tuesday.
The U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran are the cause; petrol prices jumped 37% MoM in March, and that will be the biggest contributor to headline inflation.
NAB analysts have warned: “Q1 data should confirm inflation was too high and broad-based ahead of the Iran shock, but is likely to fall short of fuelling the RBA’s concern that domestic pressures were accelerating into early CY26.”
All that has left even more bulls switch sides, and sentiment Down Under to slide firmly into bearish territory. That last green day we saw on the ASX was on Monday, April 20, and that already feels like a distant memory.
ASX stocks to watch
Now, stocks. We have two potential debutants in headlines first up, starting with Sydney-headquartered Sharon AI. The AI start-up has raised $487M on demand for access to the booming data centre sector and is pitching Oz fund managers this week. Sharon’s already on the Nasdaq in New York.
And, Kraken Energy tempered expectations it’ll immediately float after breaking away from Octopus Energy. CFO Tim Wan says they’re “still deciding.”
There’s been a whole raft of new analyst notes on Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC), with Evans & Partners raising it to “Positive,” Morgan Stanley dubbing it “Overweight,” and JPMorgan slapping an $8.70 target on the stock.
And, several quarterlies are coming this morning, including from Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS), Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL), and 29Metals (ASX:29M).
Macquarie (ASX:MGQ) sold Cleco Power in the U.S. for $8.3 billion today.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar buys US 71.8c.
In commodities, all in the greenback,
Brent Crude has made it over its next marker, adding +2.3% to now sit over $110.73/Bbl and looks to keep chugging.
Iron Ore down -0.5%, to $106.40 a tonne in Singapore,
Gold is down again, $4,608/ounce, and,
US natgas futures -1.7%; $2.68 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper‘s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck today.
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