At The Bell — Australian shares are heading for a -0.4% start early on Tuesday, stretching out a five-day loss streak for the ASX even as we have to watch the once-pacesetting Wall Street crank on to record high after record high. And just to keep track, rollercoaster oil is back above $107 a barrel today.
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Oz’s great April divorce from the U.S. and its lead has become very apparent in the month’s final weeks, where we’ve stayed very red; they’re well green.
While the rest of the world largely sees headlines like a would-be Trump assassin being caught, Iran’s foreign ministry calling the U.S. “pirates and armed robbers,” and long, drawn-out negotiations over an end to the war as quite bearish, Wall Street has been nonplused about the whole situation recently.
As noted, the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq were both up to ATHs before Week 18 really got started, though the Dow Jones was down 0.1%. Both the FTSE in London and the wider Euro Stoxx have already been in the red.
Maybe more green coming overseas, too, with 180 companies in the S&P 500 to report, including Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple.
(Most of our reporting really gets going next week, between Monday, May 4, and Friday, May 15, though there’ll be a few through Week 18.)
ASX stocks to watch
Now, to ASX stock headlines. Piercing and jewellery chain SkinKandy and New Zealand online trading platform BlackBull have both decided to host non-deal roadshows as they mull ASX IPOs quite soon.
Elsewhere, Australia’s largest toll road operator, Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX), has fielded a $6.9B buyout bid from IFM Investors this week. The Melbourne-based asset manager is looking to take control (it’s already Atlas’ biggest shareholder) to stop an aggressive expansion strategy that it doesn’t believe in.
In mining, Ora Banda (ASX:OBA) has named John Richards as a non-executive director; he is to succeed Peter Mansell as chairman later this year.
At ground level, Ragusa Minerals (ASX:RAS) has uncovered high-grade manganese at the historic Black Rock Mine in Arizona, and Talisman Mining (ASX:TLM) has spotted gold/copper potential at East Peak Hill in NSW.
Dreadnought (ASX:DRE) has wrapped up RC drilling at Metzke’s Find, too.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar buys US 71.8c.
In commodities, all in the greenback,
Brent Crude has enjoyed a mighty +13% rise over the last week, and now heads into Week 18 selling at $107.81/Bbl. And,
Iron Ore down -0.2%, to $106.45 a tonne in Singapore,
Gold is a whole lot weaker to start the week, $4,698/ounce, and,
US natgas futures -0.4%, to $2.51 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper‘s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck today.
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