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Greetings and welcome to HotCopper‘s Market Open, I’m Jon Davidson and with Brent Crude prices at US$102/bbl following statements from Iran’s new Supreme Leader that Hormuz should stay shut, it’s looking like another day of red for down under.
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We could maybe see respite coming from the fact iron ore prices over in Singapore are at US$108/tn, ASX futures were indicating a downward day for the bourse but only by an implied fifth of a percent. There is a chance for a contrarian green finish, keyword chance.
That could be a lot to hope for. Wall Street’s fear gauge currently sits in ‘extreme fear,’ every major Wall Street index lost well over -1% overnight, and the VIX remains up +30% over the last month. US inflation data also looms large, but probably not as large as Iran.
Looking at commodities: As at 9.15am AEDT, Brent is at US$102/bbl; Gold is at US$5,083.78/oz; Iron Ore fetching over US$108/tn on the SGX.
As for news around the traps on Friday:
Collins Food, which manages KFCs in Australia and abroad, has agreed to pay a $9M settlement relating to an employee class action over rest breaks; that blow comes from the Fed Court of Australia.
In a similar move, Qantas may see more pain on Friday after it too has been ordered by the Fed Court to pay $105M in a settlement related to dodgy flight cancellations made back in the COVID-era that didn’t end up in refunds for buyers.
Looking at miners, Northern Star Resources has advised that its FY26 guidance may be missed – or at least, the bottom end is the best-case – after mining productivity dropped and milling at the Super Pit fell back. Elsewhere, Rio has suspended ops at a mine in Utah following the death of a worker.
Finally, in tariff news – remember tariff news? – the US has flip-flopped on an earlier apparent intent to place tariffs on Chinese graphite products, in a move that is likely to cause pain for ASX-listed Syrah resources. Syrah, Syrah, indeed.
That’s the Market Open for Friday, I’m Jon Davidson, good luck in the day ahead and we’ll touch in with you later.
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