Market Open: Trump delays ‘major’ Iran escalation; big US tech earnings ahead

At The Bell — Australian shares are heading for a +0.9% boom on Monday morning, with the 80-point bump coming after Trump paused plans to “repeatedly strike Iran” as he looks for peace options. The deep breath on Wall Street before its huge tech reporting through Week 31 has also given traders some hope.

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U.S. indexes last closed between +0.5% up (the Dow Jones) and -0.6% down (the Nasdaq composite), though that data is all from Friday evening.

The biggest reports to watch from Wall Street are: Microsoft and Meta on Wednesday (our time) and then Apple and Amazon a day later. Apple is currently the world’s most valuable listed company – we’ll see if that holds.

We have some stats coming through Week 31 as well, including CPI on Wednesday. RBA governor Michele Bullock is speaking at a fundraiser this week; perfect for rate change clues as we prepare for August’s meeting.

The U.S. Fed call on Wednesday (U.S. time) will likely lead the RBA, too.

ASX stocks to watch

Then, in stocks Down Under, we unofficially start our own reporting this week with Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) updating shareholders early Wednesday.

The resource quarterlies keep rolling as well, with Stanmore (ASX:SMR) today, Aeris (ASX:AIS), Genesis (ASX:GMD), IGO (ASX:IGO), Iluka (ASX:ILU), and Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) tomorrow, and companies like Liontown (ASX:LTR), MinRes (ASX:MIN), Woodside (ASX:WDS), Boss (ASX:BOE), PLS (ASX:PLS), Strike (ASX:STX), Origin (ASX:ORG), and Fortescue (ASX:FMG) later this week.

Elsewhere, Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) has started civil construction at the 30-megawatt geothermal power plant for its Lionheart project in Germany today, and will also be part of the reporting rush Down Under on Thursday.

Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC) has signed a $29 million team-up with South Korea’s LS Eco Energy this morning, too, to work on processing ex-China.

And Talga Group (ASX:TLG) has signed an offtake bargain with Japan’s Hanwa.

Buck and ore

In forex, the Oz dollar is buying US 69.9c today,

Then to commodities, all in the greenback,

Brent Crude has dumped -7.3%, selling at $91.15/barrel,

Iron Ore heads into WK31 largely flat, $98.10 a tonne in Singapore,

Gold today $4,091/ounce, and,

US natgas futures down, $2.80 per gigajoule.

That’s HotCopper‘s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – happy trading today.

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