Hello, hello, and a very warm welcome to HotCopper‘s The ASX Today for Wednesday in Week 16, I’m Isaac McIntyre. Australian shares have largely advanced on Wednesday – and oil has fallen away again – as peace talks between the U.S. and Iran continue to splash everywhere in headlines.
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It’s not the biggest we’ve ever seen, with ~10 points added to the Oz bourse through to mid-arvo trade. The rise will keep us just below 9,000pts.
There’s every chance these budding bullish sentiments will get us back past the 9K marker in Week 16, though, especially with Trump still hinting a second round of peace talks with Iran could be held “over the next two days.”
I talked about it quite a bit more in my Market Open coverage this morning, but the U.S. also has its blockade in the Strait of Hormuz up and running. The U.S. military has insisted no Iranian-linked ships or tankers made it past, but tracking data shows at least three sailing away from Iranian ports have crossed the strait in just the last 24 hours. It’s a coin toss about who to trust these days.
Anyway, ‘more peace talks’ seems to be sexier than ‘Siege of Tyre-style blockade’ to most traders right now, so expect more “Hormuz hope” this week.
And just to touch on commodities before we add into stocks and companies: As I already noted, Brent crude’s having a tough week, down to $95/barrel. Gold the other way; on the way back to $5K a bullion. ~$4,824 today.
Now, Aussie stocks. For one, gold miners are up on the above, with both Northern Star (ASX:NST) and Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD) stronger. Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN), too, with its hike helped by the company posting a net cash position of $42M. All the leading Energy regulars we usually touch on went the other way: Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS), Santos (ASX:STO), and Viva Energy (ASX:VEA).
Yancoal Australia (ASX:YAL) top-billed today, after the heavyweight coal exporter won the auction for Australia’s sixth-largest coking coal mine. Yancoal will now wield an 80% chunk of the Kestrel coking coal mine, for A$2.5 billion.
Elsewhere, Newmont Corp (ASX:NEM) was forced to pause all underground operations at Cadia outside of Orange after a 4.5 magnitude earthquake was detected.
And, agricultural chem company Nufarm (ASX:NUF) enjoyed its best day since CY22 after telling shareholders it expects underlying EBITDA to rise 17%. That bump will come on plans to save $50 million through cost-cutting, Nufarm says. The Iranian war has yet to truly hurt the crop protection and seed tech company.
Finally, checking ADVFN‘s top gainers board, Freehill (ASX:FHS) hit +67% at lunchtime.
That’s the ASX Today, and I’m Isaac McIntyre. See you in the morning.
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