ASX starts higher as miners rally; Elders sinks as ACCC clears Delta buyout
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More news: Australian shares opened higher this morning, with miners leading early gains. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 33.3 points, or 0.37%, to 8,980.9 at 10:30am AEDT. Seven of the 11 sectoral indices were in positive territory.
Miners (+1.2%) were the top performing segment, as iron ore giants BHP (+1.7%), Rio Tinto (+1%) and Fortescue (+0.9%) advanced. Capstone Copper (+8%), Sandfire Resources (+5.1%), Alcoa Corporation (+3.9%), Champion Iron (+3.8%) and South32 (+3.3%) all saw sharp gains.
Guzman y Gomez (+5.9%) also rallied after reporting a 19% uptick in first-quarter sales and announcing a $100 million buyback.
Elders was the worst performer on the ASX 200, plunging 10% after the competition regulator cleared its proposed takeover of Delta Agribusiness, subject to the sale of six Delta stores in Western Australia.
Australian shares to rise as AI rally drives S&P 500, Nasdaq to records
The news: Australian shares are poised to lift this morning after AI-related companies paced gains on Wall Street.
The numbers: Updated at 7:30am AEDT:
- ASX futures: up 57 points, or 0.63%, to 9,007
- Wall Street: Dow Jones flat, S&P 500 up 0.58% and Nasdaq up 1.12%
- Europe: CAC 40 up 1.07%, DAX up 0.87% and FTSE 100 up 0.69%
- Spot gold: up 0.46% to USD3,981 per ounce
- Oil prices: Brent up 0.96% at USD66.08/bbl and US WTI up 1.04% to USD62.37/bbl
- AUD: up 0.09% to 65.86 US cents
- Bitcoin: up 1.78% to USD123,593.
The context: The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended at all-time closing highs, as chip stocks led a tech rally on Wall Street. Nvidia ended 2.2% higher after CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC that demand for Blackwell chips is “really, really” high. Advanced Micro Devices (+11.3%), Broadcom (+2.7%) and Cisco Systems (+2%) all ended higher.
The US government shutdown entered its eighth day. A congressional stalemate overnight means traders will likely be without official economic indicators for the immediate future.
