Market Open: The war in Iran’s getting worse & that means more red in Week 14 | March 30

ASX today – Hello, hello, and welcome to HotCopper‘s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, and we’re looking at a market dip early Monday. Supply disruptions from the Iran conflict continue to worry investors, as does the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, which are threatening Red Sea shipping routes.

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Yemen’s Houthi rebels recently claimed two missile launches at Israel. There are standing fears they may keep targeting ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which has become vital with the Strait of Hormuz closed.

And then Iran has also said it would “set on fire” the 2,500 U.S. Marines that just arrived in the Middle East to potentially stage ground assaults.

All in all, not the most peaceful weekend we could have seen heading into Week 14, and traders are (reasonably) acting quite bearishly under the news. On Wall Street, at least, indexes are down by as much as -2%.

We’re bound for more of a -0.8% drop, at least at open on Monday, but things could worsen if Aussie investors start heading for the hills.

Watch oil and gold closely today for a marker on where we’re going.

ASX stocks to watch

Now, around the traps Monday morning, KMD Brands (ASX:KMD) has said it’s “not in a position to make an announcement regarding the capital raise and refinancing” it’s been cooking up. The dual-listed Rip Curl and Kathmandu owner is still hoping to restart trading by as early as tomorrow morning.

Focus Minerals (ASX:FML) has taken aim at what it called “false media claims” that it’s suspended its Coolgardie gold project due to high costs and low gold prices. The news report on ad-hoc-news.de is “false and without foundation,” the Australian company strongly declared early Monday.

Elsewhere, Sprintex (ASX:SIX) has struck a deal with South Korea’s ChoisTehnics Corp to sell Sprintex Fuel Cell Compressors in the East Asian market.

Forrestania (ASX:FRS) has now confirmed there’s high-grade, near-surface niobium mineralisation within a large, previously defined system at its Wozi project over in Malawi after maiden RC drill works. The find opens up “low-cost” critical minerals exposure alongside its core gold focus.

And, Red Mountain (ASX:RML) has dug up five high-priority targets at Oaky Creek.

Buck and ore

Now – in forex, the Oz dollar is buying US 68.6c.

Looking at commodities, all in the greenback,

Iron Ore is basically flat Monday, selling at $107.25 a tonne in Singapore today,

Brent Crude is up +4%, at $112.57/Bbl,

Gold is selling at $4,509/ounce,

US natgas futures are up +3.3%, to $3.02 per gigajoule.

That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck today.

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