Happy Friday!
The good weather looks set to roll into next week.
You know it’s a wild market when the Melbourne weather seems more predictable!
Market highlights
ASX 200 futures are pointing down 67 points or 0.8 per cent to 8783.
All US prices near 3.15pm New York time.
- AUD -0.5% to US69.63¢
- Bitcoin -12.8% to $US64,155
- On Wall St: Dow -1% S&P -1.1% Nasdaq -1.3%
- VIX +2.02 to 20.66
- Gold -2.7% to $US4830.91 an ounce
- Silver -12.5% to $US73.83/oz
- Brent oil -2.9% to $US67.46 a barrel
- Iron ore -1.8% to $US100.65 a tonne
- 10-year yield: US 4.20% Australia 4.85%
Across Markets…
Australian shares are poised to fall at the open in line with extended losses in New York. Bitcoin plunged below $US64,000 as its rout showed no sign of tapering. Silver shed as much as 18 per cent before paring that loss in half.
The NYSE Fang + Index, which tracks the US megacap techs, was 1.9 per cent lower at 3.15pm, taking its five-session loss to 6.6 per cent. Amazon, set to report results after the closing bell, lost 4.2 per cent. Microsoft slumped 4.8 per cent. Bitcoin was trading at $US63,434 at 12.22pm on bitstamp.net.
Price is not right: Rio Tinto, Glencore abandon merger talks Rio Tinto said it could not agree on terms that “that would deliver value to its shareholders”. Its London-listed shares slid 2.6 per cent.
“As the trading session progresses, the sense of forced selling—and the resulting contagion—appears to be intensifying,” Mohamed El-Erian said in a post on X.
“The opportunity lies in identifying ‘good’ assets—those that are merely contaminated by proximity but remain fundamentally undamaged—being disposed of by sellers forced to liquidate to cover losses elsewhere,” El-Erian also said.
A wave of US labour market reports cemented the view that weakness is broadening, and that in turn, help lift the probability of an interest rate cut at the Federal Reserve policy meeting in June closer to 50 per cent.
Source: AFR
US launches critical minerals trade bloc to loosen Chinese chokehold
- US VP JD Vance announces plans for critical minerals trade bloc
- Land of the Free aiming to free itself from reliance on Chinese supply
- Government also launched US$12bn strategic stockpile
Our High Voltage column wraps all the news driving ASX stocks with exposure to lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel, rare earths, and vanadium.
This week’s big news centres around US Vice President JD Vance, announcing plans to gather allies into a preferential trade bloc for critical minerals.
Vance proposed coordinated price floors as part of the Government’s efforts to loosen China’s grip on materials crucial to advanced manufacturing, according to Reuters.
After China withheld rare earths exports, the trade/tariff war kicked off with gusto as Western countries like the US scramble to shore up domestic supply chains to reduce their reliance on Chinese material.
“We want to eliminate that problem of people flooding into our markets with cheap critical minerals to undercut our domestic manufacturers,” Vance said.
“We will establish reference prices for critical minerals at each stage of production … and for members of the preferential zone, these reference prices will operate as a floor maintained through adjustable tariffs to uphold pricing integrity.”
All this after Donald Trump charmed NATO allies by insinuating their troops were cowards during the US led Afghanistan War.
Speaking of the most powerful man in the world, earlier this week Trump announced a new US strategic stockpile of critical minerals backed by $10 billion in seed funding from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and $2 billion in private funding.
Project Vault aims to explore specific measures such as price supports, market standards, subsidies, and guaranteed purchases to encourage production.
To read more, click here
Company: Fin Resources Ltd (ASX:FIN)
Sector: Gold/Mining
Deal Type: Placement
Latest Entry Price: $0.0065
Today’s Price Change: $0.013 +18.18%
Company: Locksley Resources Ltd (ASX:LKY)
Sector: REE & Antimony/Mining
Deal Type: Placement
Latest Entry Price: $0.04
Today’s Price Change: $0.165 -5.71%
Company: CuFe Ltd (ASX:CUF)
Sector: Copper/Mining
Deal Type: Placement
Latest Entry Price: $0.016 with 1:2 option, strike $0.025
Today’s Price Change: $0.045 -4.88%
Company: Tasman Resources Ltd (ASX:TAS)
Sector: Gold/Silver/Mining
Deal Type: Placement
Latest Entry Price: $0.0125 with 1:2 option, strike $0.02
Today’s Price Change: $0.039 -4.88%
Company: Tambourah Metals Ltd (ASX:TMB)
Sector: Gold/Mining
Deal Type: Placement
Latest Entry Price: $0.04
Today’s Price Change: $0.057 Unchanged
Company: Biotron Ltd (ASX:BIT)
Sector: Biotech
Deal Type: Placement
Latest Entry Price: $0.003 with 1:2 option, strike $0.02
Today’s Price Change: $0.003 -14.29%
Company: Eclipse Metals Ltd (ASX:EPM)
Sector: REE
Deal Type: Placement
Latest Entry Price: $0.015
Today’s Price Change: $0.023 -11.54%
Company: Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:NEU)
Sector: Biotech
Deal Type: On-market purchase
Latest Entry Price: $1.20 – $1.50
Today’s Price Change: $13.20 -9.77%
Company: Dimerix Ltd (ASX:DXB)
Sector: Biotech
Deal Type: Rights Issue
Raise Amount: $800,000
Latest Entry Price: $0.08 with 1:1 option, strike $0.126
Today’s Price Change: $0.515 -1.9%
Company: Noviqtech Ltd (ASX:NVQ)
Sector: Blockchain
Deal Type: Placement
Raise Amount: $1M
Latest Entry Price: $0.02 with 1:1 option $0.08 strike
Today’s Price Change: $0.025 -13.79%
Company: Critica Limited (ASX:CRI)
Sector: REE
Deal Type: Placement
Raise Amount: $1M
Latest Entry Price: $0.0075 with a 1:1 CRIO
Today’s Price Change: $0.028 -6.67%
Company: Patagonia Lithium (ASX:PL3)
Sector: Lithium
Deal Type: IPO
Raise Amount: $8.6M
Latest Entry Price: $0.09 with 1:2 PL3O
Today’s Price Change: $0.10 Unchanged
Company: WhiteHawk Ltd. (ASX:WHK)
Sector: Cybersecurity & AI
Deal Type: Placement
Raise Amount: $1.7M
Latest Entry Price: $0.01 with 1:3 option $0.02 strike
Today’s Price Change: $0.007 Unchanged
Company: Kalgoorlie Gold Mining Limited. (ASX:KAL)
Sector: Gold/Mining
Deal Type: Placement
Raise Amount: $2.3M
Latest Entry Price: $0.026 with 1:2 option $0.032 strike
Today’s Price Change: $0.046 -4.17%
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