ASX opens flat as energy and mining stocks climb
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
More news: Australian shares opened marginally higher, driven by energy and mining stocks, which accounted for seven of the 10 top performers across the ASX 200.
The benchmark ASX 200 index was up 20 points, or 0.23% to 8,828 at 10:26am AEDT. Six of the 11 sectorial indices opened in the green.
Energy stocks led early gains, lifted by Karoon Energy (+2.57%), Whitehaven Coal (+1.69%) and Woodside Energy (+1.97%).
Monadelphous Group (+2.87%) was one of the top performers across the ASX 200 after inking a $300 million service contract deal with Rio Tinto.
However GQG Partners (-2.13%) fell for the second consecutive day after reporting a $3.3 billion fall in funds under management in December.
Technology (-0.44%) was the worst performing sector at the open led by a fall in Macquarie Technology Group (-1.64%), Xero (-1.86%), Bravura Solutions (-1.95%) and Weebit Nano (-1.61%).
The job vacancies data and building approval figures for November 2025 is due to be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics at 11:30am AEDT.
Australian shares to open higher as Wall Street falls on bank earnings
The news: Australian shares are set to open higher despite the Dow Jones, S&P500 and Nasdaq trading lower overnight. US stocks fell on Tuesday, led by a decline in financials after JPMorgan's fourth-quarter profit tumbled 7%.
Traders were also focused on underlying US inflation data, which rose by less than anticipated, signalling that price growth may be cooling ahead of the Federal Reserve’s upcoming rate decision.
The numbers: Updated at 7:45am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 30 points, or 0.30% to 8,798.
- Wall Street: Dow Jones down 0.98%, S&P 500 down 0.45% and the Nasdaq down 0.37%.
- Europe: CAC 40 down 0.14%, DAX up 0.06% and FTSE 100 down 0.03%.
- Spot gold: down 0.22% to USD4,588 per ounce.
- Oil prices: Brent up 2.25% to USD65.30/bbl and US WTI up 2.54% to USD61.03/bbl.
- AUD: down 0.43% at 66.81 US cents.
- Bitcoin: up 3.44% to USD94,257.
The context: US stocks moved lower overnight on Wall Street, dragged down by financials after a 4% drop in shares of investment bank JPMorgan, which reported a 7% fall in profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 and a 2% decline in debt-underwriting fees.
The sell-off in financials also followed Donald Trump's proposal to impose a one-year cap of 10% on credit card interests. JPMorgan Chase CFO Jeremy Barnum said the proposed cap would adversely impact US consumers and the broader economy.
Other major banks, which are due to report their quarterly earnings later this week, also traded lower even as analysts expect most banks to post stronger results for the December quarter.
On the data front, underlying US inflation rose less than expected to 2.7% in December. Federal Reserve officials are widely expected to hold interest rates steady later this month.
Locally, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release job vacancies data and building approval figures for November 2025 at 11:30am AEDT.
The source: Reuters
