At The Bell — Australian shares are heading for a +0.5% advance on Tuesday morning, heading the other way to Wall Street’s softening indices. The 50-point advance, should it hold against the U.S. red, would give us breathing room to reel in 9,000 again and maybe shake off some of the war damage.
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The Nasdaq composite was the main focus over on the U.S. bourses, snapping a thirteen-day winning streak by posting a -0.3% dip. The S&P 500 was relatively similar, while the Dow Jones cruised into the station flat(ish).
Some U.S. hesitancy may be on Trump saying he won’t be “rushed into a bad deal” and suggested he’s okay to let the peace deadline expire Thursday.
That may be why Europe was largely down as well: They didn’t get a chance to really trade on all the chaos over the weekend, and once leading indexes the FTSE and Stoxx opened, they both slid into drops, up to -0.8%.
We got our fill on all the Strait of Hormuz back and forth yesterday – where Washington and Tehran kept insisting it was closed, open, closed open – and so the middling end to Monday may’ve been our reaction. That’s not to say more won’t then decide to follow Wall Street’s lead later; for now, we’ll be green.
ASX stocks to watch
Now, off to Oz shares. First, BHP (ASX:BHP) is starting up an internal review of its steelmaking coal mines owned with Japan’s Mitsubishi. BHP is looking to rank them by operating costs as it looks to tighten the belt. The cash-saving move comes weeks after BHP warned there may be job cuts.
Elsewhere, James Hardie (ASX:JHX) is facing a possible shareholder class action after a 34% share price fall over two days in August, mainly driven by weaker earnings and a guidance drop. Maurice Blackburn is investigating whether the company breached disclosure obligations or misled investors.
In tech, NextDC (ASX:NXT) has won its biggest-ever customer contract this week. Chief Craig Scroggie also took a swipe at rival Firmus (floating soon); he raised doubts on whether Firmus could build “fit-for-purpose” facilities.
KMD Brands (ASX:KMD) has raked in around ~$11M from its retail entitlement offer; eligible shareholders took up about 52% of available entitlements.
Vanguard (VAS)/Betashares (A200) divvies have come in to start Week 17.
And, Woolies (ASX:WOW) is off to Federal Court today too; updates to come on that front.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar buys US 71.7c.
In commodities, all in the greenback,
Brent Crude has kept ticking higher under the doubtful U.S.-Iran ceasefire, up just under +5% on Tuesday morning, to $94.68/Bbl,
Iron Ore is up around +1%, to $106.80 a tonne in Singapore,
Gold‘s gaining, now at $4,839/ounce today, and,
US natgas futures are $2.66 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck today.
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