At The Bell — Australian shares are heading for a -0.3% start this morning, with our Week 17 divorce from Wall Street seemingly holding to end of week. Each day we’ve gone up, they’ve gone down, and vice versa – a trend that’s no different today; all three U.S. indices are closing in the green as we rumble awake.
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Our response Down Under seems a bit more in tune with what’s happening globally, considering Iran attacked ships in the Strait of Hormuz to try and break the blockade, Brent crude is back above $US100 a barrel for the first time in two weeks, and, still, mediators are scrambling to restart peace talks.
Maybe Wall Street sees a different story to us; it doesn’t feel like a week that should be littered with +1% rallies and green lights from dawn to dusk.
Some can be explained, though, especially when you look at booming U.S. tech. Google is developing a new computer processor, Tesla has way more cash in hand than expected, and Anthropic’s Mythos is rolling out quickly.
All very exciting — but as long as Trump keeps tweeting things like “there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!” the rest of the world may not get as bullish.
ASX stocks to watch
Now, let’s get into Aussie stocks. First, Cochlear (ASX:COH) is a must-watch through to Friday after suffering so badly mid-week that it dragged down the whole bourse. The medical device developer lost nearly $4.5B in value after telling shareholders it would be making a steep earnings downgrade.
In better news: BHP (ASX:BHP) has formally ended a months-long stoush with China’s most powerful central buying agency, tying up a deal for better-than-expected iron ore prices. The China Resources Group, which had soft-banned BHP exports, runs nearly 80% of all state-owned Chinese steel mills.
Woolworths (ASX:WOW) is still in Federal Court, too. Yesterday, the yummy Oreo cookie got its time as a key ACCC example for alleged pricing dishonesties.
And, uranium explorer Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) has drawn eyes on the HotCopper forums after confirming it has several “priority targets” lined up at the Condor prospect in Arnhem Land for this next exploration season.
Earnings season is back again, too, with pace-setters like Fortescue (ASX:FMG), Insignia Financial (ASX:IFL), Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU), Sandfire (ASX:SFR), and Santos (ASX:STO) among those sharing results through Thursday.
Woodside (ASX:WDS) has an AGM scheduled for today, too.
Buck and ore
Now – in forex, the Oz dollar buys US 71.5c.
In commodities, all in the greenback,
Brent Crude has shifted back above the ton all over again, this Thursday morning up another +3% to sell at $101.44/Bbl. Then,
Iron Ore is up +0.2%, to $107.10 a tonne in Singapore,
Gold regained ever so slightly again, now at $4,750/ounce, and,
US natgas futures are $2.71 per gigajoule.
That’s HotCopper’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre – good luck today.
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