Expect a 0.22% drop when the Australian share market opens this Wednesday morning; ASX 200 futures are pointing to an 18.1-point decline, though that may change once we get the monthly inflation figures a little later today.
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As usual, some of the red – which has stretched through Week 9 – can be attributed to moves made by U.S. President Trump. This time, he’s ordering a limit on Chinese investments in “strategic” sectors State-side, especially when it comes to key chip production, future AI design, and aerospace advancements.
The move dented the Nasdaq composite the most and the tech-heavy index dropped as much as 1.4%. The S&P 500 was also down, shaving a hair under 0.5%.
Back home, it’s all eyes on inflation data: The monthly indicator (this time for January) will be shared at 11.30am in Sydney. Should NAB’s predictions be right, investors will see a 2.7% year-on-year increase, up from 2.5%.
Some of that can be attributed to Queensland’s electricity rebate slowly wrapping up.
WiseTech Global (ASX:WTC) – the near constant headline-maker these past six months – is in the spotlight for another day after The Fin Review reported embattled founder Richard White shipped $200M worth of shares these past two months.
(Interestingly, WiseTech is also sharing its half-year earnings early today.)
Elsewhere, MIXI Inc. has agreed to buy PointsBet (ASX:PBH) for $1.06 a share. This scheme of arrangement represents a 27.7% premium on the betting company’s last close.
Miner Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC) may dip in price today, with the company’s net profit diving 85%, to $5.9M, through H1FY25. No dividends there, unsurprisingly.
Supermarket titan Woolworths (ASX:WOW) reports today too; some expect this to best evidence how households are dealing with the cost of living crisis.
Flight Centre (ASX:FLT) and Bapcor (ASX:BAP) will also be among the reporting companies.
Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 63.4 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has dropped 2% to $106 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $73.14,
Gold is trading at $2,927 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures are up another 4.6%, to $4.16 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.