ASX opens lower as gold miners plunge; Pinnacle climbs on $92m Advantage Partners deal
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More news: Australian shares fell at the open as miners retreated following a sharp slide in gold prices overnight. The benchmark ASX 200 index lowered 0.78% to 9,024 points at 10:30am AEDT. Nine of the 11 sectoral indices were in negative territory as mining stocks shed 3.3%.
Pinnacle Investment Management (5.6%) was the top performer on the ASX 200, after agreeing to buy an initial 5% stake in private markets platform Advantage Partners for $92 million. Oil giant Woodside Energy (+3.6%) also climbed after upgrading its full-year production guidance this morning.
However, miners retreated after driving the ASX 200 to a record high close on Tuesday. Gold producers made up all 10 of the worst performers on the index, after gold prices saw their biggest decline in more than 12 years overnight. Westgold Resources, Bellevue Gold, Ramelius Resources, Regis Resources, Catalyst Metals and Vault Minerals all dived more than 10%.
Australian shares to open lower as Wall Street ends mixed and gold retreats
The news: Australian shares are set to open lower after Wall Street stocks ended mixed overnight, as gold and silver saw sharp losses while the US dollar climbed.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEDT:
- ASX futures: down 27 points to 9,055
- Wall Street: Dow Jones up 0.47%, S&P 500 up 0.15% and Nasdaq down 0.16%
- Europe: CAC 40 up 0.64%, DAX up 0.29% and FTSE 100 up 0.25%
- Spot gold: down 5.46% to USD4,119 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent up 0.95% at USD61.59/bbl and US WTI up 0.85% to USD57.51/bbl
- AUD: down 0.42% to 64.90 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 0.33% to USD110,954.
The context: The Dow and S&P 500 lifted while the Nasdaq edged down, after General Motors (+14.9%), 3M (+7.7%) and Coca-Cola (+4.1%) reported broadly positive third-quarter results. Tesla, IBM, Procter & Gamble and Intel are all set to report later in the week.
Shares of Warner Bros Discovery rocketed 11% after the company said it is open to a sale as it expands its strategic review. The board rejected an offer from Paramount Skydance later in the session.
Gold and silver both tumbled over concerns that the recent rally in the precious metals has left them overvalued.
In the local market, investors will turn to annual general meetings held by Fletcher Building, Magellan Financial Group, Codan, Adairs, Sigma Healthcare, APA Group, Argo Investments and Reliance Worldwide.
