\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n SPI Futures ahead 2pts, after Wall Street rose overnight\u00a0<\/strong> You can expect an ASX on ice as trade kicks off in Sydney this morning.<\/p>\n The S&P\/ASX200 index futures contract was down just two points to 7682.0 on Tuesday morning, despite a strong session on Wall Street overnight.<\/p>\n The local benchmark recovered from early losses to close Monday, March 18, 2024 ever so slightly into the green, up 5.5 points or 0.07% to 7,675.80.<\/p>\n Investors will be largely sidelined \u2013 closely eyeing the Reserve Bank of Australia\u2019s interest rate policy decision statement scheduled for release at 2.30pm (AEDT), with the central bank largely expected to keep rates on hold.<\/p>\n The RBA\u2019s last rate hike occurred in November, raising rates by 25 basis points to 4.35%, marking a 12-year high. This increase marked the central bank\u2019s 13th rate hike since May 2022, as it endeavors to steer inflation back towards its target range of 2-3%.<\/p>\n January\u2019s Australian CPI stood at 3.4% yoy, falling short of economists\u2019 consensus forecast of 3.6%. Despite this, it remains the lowest annual inflation rate since November 2021, fueling speculation of a potential interest rate cut later in the year. Consensus suggests that the RBA will maintain current rates at tomorrow\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n The Bank of Japan\u2019s monetary policy decision is also expected on Tuesday. Japan\u2019s central bank is widely anticipated to abandon its negative interest rate policy due to an uptick in wage growth and other economic data.<\/p>\n The Bank of England and US Federal Reserve will release their interest rates decisions later this week.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On Wall Street, the mega cap stocks lifted the tech-focused NASDAQ index 0.9% higher, the S&P 500 rose 0.7 % and the Dow Jones Industrial closed 0.2%\u00a0 higher.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s parent Alphabet rose ~5% after reports that Apple was in talks to build Google\u2019s Gemini AI engine into its iPhone.<\/p>\n Tesla shares surged by 6.3%, topping the list of percentage gains in the S&P 500, following an announcement by the electric car manufacturer of an impending price hike for its Model Y EVs in certain European regions.<\/p>\n AI chipmaker Nvidia shares rose by 0.7% as the high profile unveiled a new powerful faster platform called Blackwell at its five-day annual developers conference in San Jose which has been dubbed the \u201cAI Woodstock\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nvidia says the Blackwell platform \u201cwill enable organisations everywhere to build and run real-time generative AI on trillion-parameter large language models at up to 25x less cost and energy consumption than its predecessor\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Blackwell GPU architecture features six transformative technologies for accelerated computing, which will help unlock breakthroughs in data processing, engineering simulation, electronic design automation, computer-aided drug design, quantum computing and generative AI \u2014 all emerging industry opportunities for Nvidia,\u201d the company says in a release.<\/a><\/p>\n Nvidia says among the many organisations expected to adopt Blackwell are Amazon Web Services, Dell Technologies, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, Tesla and xAI.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Ongoing geopolitical tensions has seen global oil prices lift with benchmark Brent crude up 2.16% nearing $US87\/barrel and US WTI lifting 1.81% to near $US83\/barrel.<\/p>\n Iron ore is continuing its downward trend, currently 2.84% lower to US $102.50\/tonne.<\/p>\n Gold is 0.23% higher to $US2160\/ounce, while copper is up 0.07% to US$4.12lb.<\/p>\n US 10-year bond yields have settled near 4.33% ahead of the Fed\u2019s interest rate decision later this week.<\/p>\n The US dollar has lifted with the Aussie dollar down 0.02% trading around US65.60c. Bitcoin is down 1.07% to US$67,520 retreating from its highs of above US$73,000 seen last week.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Poseidon Nickel (ASX:POS) <\/strong><\/a>\u00a0After overseeing the Lake Johnston sale and delivering annualised savings of over $6mn, POS says CEO Craig Jones will leave the company to \u201cexplore other opportunities\u201d with CFO Brendan Shalders to transition to CEO from April 1, 2024.<\/p>\n Aurum Resources (ASX:AUE)<\/strong><\/a> will acquire a 100% interest in the advanced Boundiali South exploration tenement (PR-414), which the explorer says neighbours its existing \u201chighly prospective Boundiali Gold Project comprising of the BD tenement and BM tenement\u201d in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, West Africa.<\/p>\n Boss Energy (ASX:BOE)<\/strong><\/a> reckons it\u2019s hit some \u201cexceptionally high-grade\u201d results from drilling at its 30%-owned Alta Mesa Uranium Project in South Texas. The results, which were released by Alta Mesa\u2019s 70% owner and operator NASDAQ-listed Energy Corp (enCore), contain \u201cthe highest-grade intersections recorded at the project\u201d since drilling activities restarted.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post Market Highlights: ASX on tightrope as traders await blockbuster RBA decision<\/a> appeared first on Stockhead<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nThe RBA to announce its latest interest rate decision today\u00a0<\/strong>
\nAI chipmaker Nvidia unveils powerful new Blackwell platform<\/strong><\/p>\nNot the ASX<\/h2>\n
Oil higher, US dollar firmer<\/h2>\n
Shares to watch on Tuesday:<\/h2>\n