The ASX has made a strong showing today, gaining 1.37% or 95.8 points to 7,102.50 and setting a new 20-day high.
The boost brought the bourse back to even for the year, driven mostly by a rally in tech shares, which drove the S&P/ASX All Technology Index (XTX) up 1.79% on softening US inflation.
As for the tech stocks themselves, WiseTech Global Limited added 6.13%% to its share price, Xero Ltd 2.43% and Life360, Inc. 6.44%.
After a tough few months, most commodities also gained today, with just West Texas Crude (-0.38%) and aluminium (-0.18%) left out in the cold.
Silver gained the most, notching a 5.25% increase, but every metal notched about 1%, with platinum (+2.58%) and palladium (+3.14%) outperforming.
The sectors put in a solid performance bar Energy, which fell 0.77%. Real Estate (+4.53%) and Info Tech (+3.27%) led the charge.
Google’s investment moat draws retail investors
Retail purchases of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL) shares skyrocketed in October, according to data from Capital.com, climbing by more than 360% despite growing antitrust scrutiny and litigation against Alphabet’s Google platform in the UK, EU and US.
While retail investors seem unfazed by the possibility of a regulator crack-down on the search engine giant, analysts point to ongoing risks to long-term profitability.
“The inherent problem regarding competition laws and the tech giants is that they don’t directly engage in major anti-competitive conduct,” Capital.com senior market analyst Kyle Rodda said.
“Still, because of network effects and first-mover advantages, they establish moats that are extraordinarily difficult to bridge.
“It means many commercial decisions these companies make are open to being interpreted as market abuse.
“What Alphabet has done is effectively sell advertising space. But because it has no real competitors and the world basically revolves around e-commerce, its customers' only options are to pay Google for the privilege of showing up on its search engine or lose out to its competitors.
“The costs ultimately get passed onto consumers because consumers rely almost entirely on Google. Effectively, a double whammy.
“Regulating tech companies like Google is difficult due to their size, complexity and global reach. These companies also act like a public utility, creating accessibility to an essential resource like the internet.
“Dismantling these companies is difficult, so a carrot and (mostly) stick approach is the only viable way to regulate.
“This approach means there are ongoing risks to the profitability of these companies from any commercial decision that rankles regulators.”
The five at five
GTI Energy has drill spinning at Lo Herma ISR Uranium Project in Wyoming's Powder River Basin
GTI Energy Ltd (ASX:GTR, OTC:GTRIF) has kicked off drilling activities at its 100%-owned Lo Herma ISR Uranium Project in Wyoming's renowned Powder River Basin.
Read more
Green Technology Metals achieves “impressive” 71.6% recovery to high-quality concentrate up to 6.8% Li2O; shares up
Metallurgical tests carried out by Green Technology Metals Ltd (ASX:GT1, OTC:GTMLF) on ore from the North Aubry deposit of its flagship Seymour Project in Ontario, Canada, have yielded an “impressive” 71.6% recovery to a high-quality spodumene concentrate of up to 6.8% Li2O.
Read more
Ionic Rare Earths subsidiary to ramp up magnet recycling production capacity
Rare earth magnet recycling business Ionic Technologies International Ltd, a subsidiary of Ionic Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:ASX:IXR, OTC:IXRRF), has received multiple new partnering enquiries to utilise its magnet recycling technology to secure sustainable rare earths supply.
Read more
Jindalee Resources higher on delivering strong metallurgical results from McDermitt
Jindalee Resources Ltd (ASX:JRL) is trading higher on revealing metallurgical results described as ‘exceptional’ from initial head assays from the McDermitt Lithium Project in Oregon, USA.
Read more
Andromeda Metals boosts war chest by offloading non-core assets
Andromeda Metals Ltd (ASX:ADN) has actioned its corporate strategy of divesting non-core assets with the sale of the Drummond Epithermal Gold Project and the company’s 25% interest in the Wudinna Gold Project.
Read more
On your six
Price falls position lithium market for longer-term bounce back
It’s been a tough year for lithium as weak electric vehicle sales growth led to high stockpiles and sent prices of the metal tumbling.
Read more
One to watch
Suvo Strategic Minerals welcomes US$430,000 kaolin prepayment
Suvo Strategic Minerals Ltd (ASX:SUV) interim CEO Bojan Bogunovic speaks with Proactive soon after announcing it has received a prepayment of around US$430,000 from major Chinese kaolin customer ChaoZhou ChengCheng Industrial Co for about 900 tonnes of hydrous kaolin from the Pittong operations in Victoria.
Watch more