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Greetings and welcome to the latest edition of The ASX Today for Thursday, I’m Jon Davidson. A fun fact, we’re nearly at the end of Week 5 of the year, meaning we’re already one-tenth through CY26. Let that sink in.
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And to mark this momentous occasion, we’ve found ourselves once again losing converts to the Church of The Risk Off as the reality of an RBA rate hike kicks in, right at the same time that fresh posturing, or distraction, from Donald Trump has thrown a spanner in the works of the critical minerals thematic.
As of yet unconfirmed reports came in overnight, the U.S. government mightn’t be so keen anymore to offer price supports to rare earths miners; at its most coherent vision, that looked like a plan to have the Pentagon buy neodymium off U.S. explorer MP Materials at a premium to the benchmark price, ensuring profitability.
This plan was why the XJO had a fire lit under it last October, pushing us to record levels at the same time our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and Trump had a critical minerals meeting; something I’ve talked a lot about.
Long story short, there were hopes the U.S. might do the same here. Well, not anymore. In turn, rare earths players Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU) and Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC) have both dropped -15% intraday, though Lynas is still posting strong 1Y returns, so that might indicate we’re seeing panic selling as opposed to a consensus bear case. At any rate, critical minerals stocks broadly suffered too, even Larvotto (ASX:LRV), which has antimony in New South Wales.
At any rate, not even still-surging gold and silver prices were enough to save the mood in the room; in fact, the materials sector led laggards. That I think is more to do with the RBA killing the mood, though, uranium traders weren’t listening.
In that vein, Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) among the top gainers of the day, but beaten out by smallcap Atomic Eagle (ASX:ATQ), a recent listee; Nexgen Energy (ASX:NXG) posted gains too, while, notably, SILEX (ASX:SLX) flattish green.
Looking at majors, BHP (ASX:BHP) is red but maintaining above $50 a share; Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA), meanwhile, is down nearly a percent on Thursday afternoon, with the biggest bank in Australia and the world’s most expensive bank stock now down as much as -7% year to date.
Woolworths (ASX:WOW) was flattish green, but Coles (ASX:COL) was flattish red, showing perhaps mixed sentiment around what higher CPI means.
That’s The ASX Today, I’m Jon Davidson, have a frolicking evening.
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