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Hello, hello, and welcome to HotCopper‘s The ASX Today for Tuesday, Week 17, I’m Isaac McIntyre. Another day, another green market open before we slide into a soft retreat for the rest of the day. Amid this Iranian war, I think you could pretty much set your clocks to the lunchtime pullback these days.
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I did say in my At The Bell coverage Wall Street struggling could eventually wash down to our little Aussie shores; that’s probably, largely, what happened. The U.S.-Iran ceasefire ending Thursday would have some skittish, too.
Oz shares did get as high as +0.4% early, then dropped to nearly 30 points lower than open at their worst around lunchtime. Now we’re ~8,940 points.
I genuinely just think there’s so much guesswork around right now that can only really be solved by either: A) the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran restarting at the end of the week after a failure to find peace, or B) a proper peace bargain being struck and everything being wrapped up after several months of chaos.
Until then, I’d get used to half the market guessing one way – and buying and selling on those beliefs – and the other half heading in exactly the other direction.
I know, I know, it makes checking in on the ASX market daily a bit of a melting pot of everything in between, but clearly, some traders are still finding opportunities because every stock keeps swinging. Energy microcap Red Sky (ASX:ROG) one good example; up as much as +33% today on little news.
Let’s stick with stocks while we’re there. Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) enjoyed a strong Tuesday, after the mining giant told shareholders that it would manage steeper diesel prices and maintain supply through the current global crisis. This came out as the bourse-leading blue-chip maintained full-year production cost guidance across its operations, including for its bumper iron ore mines in the Pilbara.
Challenger (ASX:CGF), meanwhile, didn’t fare so well after reporting; the investment management firm apparently had to squeeze full-year earnings guidance to 66c to 70c to account for “volatility.” Markets didn’t love the move.
Elsewhere, Woolworths (ASX:WOW) has faced its first full day in Federal Court, where the ACCC opened its salvo by alleging Woolies executives had deliberately relaxed guardrails meant to protect shoppers from “untrue discounting.” This, the regulator alleges, was a strategy of “subtle magic” around price tags.
Looking a little wider, Aussie tech is being repriced somewhat in Week 17 as excitement around AI demand builds again. Tech was one of the ASX’s five green sectors today, adding a little over +0.4% through to mid-arvo.
Not doing so great were Energy (down over -1%), Financials, and Health Care.
That’s the ASX Today, and I’m Isaac McIntyre. See you in the morning.
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