ASX expected to drop at open; Nvidia surges 7%.
Flutter Entertainment falls 7% due to Illinois sports betting tax
GameStop rises 25% with $1 billion share sale; BHP rumoured to seek more time for Anglo deal
The ASX 200 is poised to fall when the market opens on Wednesday. At 8am AEST, the ASX200 futures contract was pointing down by -0.6%.
Overnight, the S&P 500 closed flat, the blue chips Dow Jones index was down -0.55%, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq surged by +0.59% to yet another all-time high.
Nvidia led the tech rally as it jumped +7% on no specific news. The AI chipmaker’s market cap is now just US$100 billion short of surpassing Apple’s.
Wagering stocks took a dip after the Illinois Senate passed legislation that would raise taxes on sports betting. Flutter Entertainment, a company that offers a diverse set of sports betting, iGaming, and online racing, fell -7% on the news.
GameStop Corp surged +25% after announcing that it managed to raise almost US$1 billion from a share sale program amid renewed interest for the so-called meme stock.
BHP shares on the NYSE was flat after rumours swirled that the company is likely request more time to finalise a deal with Anglo American. BHP has until 5pm in London today to make a new offer to Anglo after its previous three were rejected.
Meanwhile, oil-related stocks will be in focus today as crude prices rose by 2% due to increased tensions in the Middle East following an attack on a vessel in the Red Sea and Israeli tanks reaching the centre of Rafah.
T+1 is live on Wall Street
There’s a bit of a change happening on Wall Street.
Trading in US stocks markets will speed up big time, and starting last night, trades in New York would settle in just one day, instead of two, cutting the time for each transaction in half.
Called T+1, this system was ditched previously because things got too hectic. Now, it’s back but there are concerns.
There was already one incident last night as a software mistake at MEMX LLC caused incorrect pre-market trading, leading exchanges like NYSE, Nasdaq, and Cboe to temporarily stop routing orders to MEMX.
The interruption may or may not be related to T+1, we’ll never know, but it’s got traders worried about a potentially bigger issue.
“We know there are going to be some issues with a transition like this, so it’s about having the right resources to fix them quickly,” Christos Ekonomidis of BNY Mellon told Bloomberg.
In other markets …
Gold price rose by +0.3%% to US$2,359.67 an ounce.
Oil prices gained +2%, with Brent crude now trading at US$84.51 a barrel.
The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield jumped 10 basis points (bond prices lower) to 4.56%. This came following weak demand for the 2-year and 5-year US Treasury note auctions.
The Aussie dollar fell by -0.11% to 66.51 cents.
The iron ore price also retreated further by -1.2% to US$117.90 a tonne.
Bitcoin meanwhile fell by -1.5% in the last 24 hours to US$68,534, while Ethereum was down by -1% to US$3,853.
5 ASX small caps to watch today
OAR Resources (ASX:OAR)
OAR announced the expansion of its Brazilian assets by the pegging of an additional 650km2 of prospective ground in the states of Rio Grande Do Sul and Goiás. This is an increase of 283% and brings the total Brazilian landholding to 880km2. The acquired tenements are considered prospective for sandstone and sedimentary hosted uranium mineralisation.
Fonterra (ASX:FSF)
The milk company provided its Q3 business update, announcing profit after tax from continuing operations of $1,013 million, up $20 million on pcp or equivalent to 61c per share. CEO Miles Hurrell says the Foodservice and Consumer channels in particular had a strong third quarter with a lift in earnings compared to the same time last year.
Critical Resources (ASX:CRR)
31 new LCT pegmatites were discovered to the east of the Mavis Lake Main Zone, including multiple spodumene-bearing pegmatites. The discoveries were confirmed by the discovery of several new exposed rock formations, extending the known area of spodumene-containing rocks up to 250m in length.
Biome Australia (ASX:BIO)
Biome expects FY24 international sales revenue to exceed $850k, growing over 85% compared to the pcp. The company has received approval from Health Canada for eight product registrations, with more expected in Q4 FY24, and plans to explore Western European markets for FY25 expansion, starting with a test market launch in North America via Canada in H2 FY25.
Tambourah Metals (ASX:TMB)
Tambourah has received the first test results from its initial drilling at the Cheela Gold Project in Western Australia. Tambourah’s drilling targeted significant gold intersections in wide-spaced historic drilling including: 16m at 4.75g/t Au from 88m, and 11m at 4.17g/t Au from 34m.
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