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Hello, hello, and welcome to HotCopper’s The ASX Today for Monday, Week 16, I’m Isaac McIntyre. This arvo, we’re sitting looking at a 40-point loss for the local bourse, -0.4%, after the U.S. and Iran peace talks collapsed over the weekend and Trump suggested his military “ready” to restart the conflict in the Middle East.
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Things dropped further than when I was talking about everything in the Market Open coverage this morning, mainly because Trump has ordered a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices are higher off that, and markets are starting to panic a little over things getting back to war scenarios.
U.S. forces will implement a blockade of all maritime traffic through Iranian ports at our Oz midnight (10AM Monday in New York), U.S. Central Command said today.
There are still some bullish traders hoping this is all posturing from the U.S. President and his negotiators to get Iran back to the table — TACO, anyone? — but everyone in that camp seems a little gloomier hour by hour.
We’re going to have to see what Wall Street and the rest of the world’s markets do when they all open overnight, but I’m not holding my breath that it’s going to be pretty unless the peace talks resume. We’ll see, I suppose.
(Make sure you tune into my daily Market Open coverage at ~8.30AM tomorrow morning to see whether we survived Wall Street joining Week 16 play.)
Now, in stocks, Energy has again climbed on the prospect that the U.S. and Israel will be resuming their offensive against Iran. It climbed over +2% today, while every other sector (bar Comms) dropped into the red.
Elsewhere, Insignia Financial (ASX:IFL) will delist from the ASX at the end of the week after 98.65% of shareholders voted in approval on a $3.8 billion takeover by CC Capital. The vote this morning went by without much of a fuss.
The a2 Milk Company (ASX:A2M) dumped over -12% today after downgrading its FY25-26 outlook on profits today. The New Zealand dairy leaders said Chinese supply chain disruptions were to blame for product shortages, which have forced it to cut expected EBITDA margins to 14% to 14.5%, from 15.5% to 16%.
In Aussie resources, Prairie Lithium (ASX:PL9) was a big winner early in Week 16, adding nearly +17% after telling shareholders it’s on target for first production at its namesake project later this year. construction of the building to house its commercial-scale direct lithium extraction (DLE) unit is now nearing completion in Saskatchewan, Canada, marking a key milestone toward first production.
Finally, Brambles (ASX:BSB) fell after the Federal Court partly upheld shareholder claims that had alleged the company made misleading guidance disclosures.
That’s the ASX Today for Monday, I’m Isaac McIntyre. See you in the morning.
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