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Greetings and welcome to the ASX Today for Monday of Week 8 of the year, I’m Jon Davidson. What to say about today? In a word, boring, even for February earnings season. That’s because we’re directionless without a captain right now; it’s President’s Day in the U.S., so no Wall Street guidance tonight.
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China’s also taking the trading week off as we launch into Year Of The Horse, which I predict will be about swiftness, luck, wealth and good health. (After all, that’s what every Chinese New Year is about.)
While the ASX isn’t really linked to China’s stock markets more than its economy, its another indicator we’ll be going without this week; meanwhile, the NIKKEI was down a third of a percent in afternoon trades, Australia time; that’s because Japan’s fourth-quarter GDP growth missed expectations, probably leading to some profit taking while gains from the Japanese version of the Trump trade linger.
Elsewhere, iron ore remains under $100/tonne USD in Singapore, and we’ve learned that while BHP told the market its relationship with China was good last year, its Jimblebar fine iron ore exports to China collapsed in January, as Australia’s biggest company apparently finds itself up against stiff opposition. Definitely one to keep an eye on.
And as for the U.S., we got softer than expected inflation data last Friday from the world’s number one economy, but across CY25, we also saw the largest downward revision of jobs in twenty years. Over one million roles that didn’t actually exist were counted last year, and because it’s a U.S. holiday, it’ll be hard to tell how much weight that catalyst has over two days. At the time of recording, US futures are up, slightly.
As for company news around the traps, JB Hi-Fi (ASX:JBH) jumped +7% but still remains near 16-month-lows after it bumped its dividend by 23% to $2.10 and noted that while the Oz consumer is still looking for bargains, they haven’t really stopped buying gadgets. Nor vacuum cleaners over at the Good Guys.
Elsewhere, Genesis Minerals (ASX:GED) is to buy Magnetic at an implied value of $2/sh. Magnetic upgraded its Lady Julie JORC to over 2Moz gold just last month.
And then finally, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) fell over as much as -4% in afternoon trades as iron ore prices remain shaky, as well as because there’s been a fatality at the company’s Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.
We’ll see you on Tuesday – and we’ll also be at the RIU Explorers Conference in Fremantle on Wednesday in the flesh! Come along, and say hello.
That’s the ASX Today for Monday, I’m Jon Davidson, have a great night.
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