After setting a new 20-day low, the Australian sharemarket was up again today, gaining 81.90 points or 1.08% to 7,649.20.
Top-performing stocks were South32 Ltd and Lovisa Holdings Ltd, up 5.64% and 4.87% respectively.
The index has lost 1.78% for the last five days but is virtually unchanged over the last year to date.
Last week the local share market slumped to its lowest level since February against the backdrop of escalations in the Middle East conflict. The ASX 200 finished down 74.8 points on Friday, or 0.98%, to 7,567.3, a weekly loss of 2.8%.
The broader All Ordinaries fell 81.5 points, or 1.03%, to 7,817.4 as concerns lingered that US inflation could push back Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, while safe havens including bonds, gold and oil prices were looking good.
Domestically, interest rate markets are no longer pricing in a cut before the end of the year, with continuing strength in the jobs market adding to the case for the Reserve Bank to keep rates higher for longer.
Every official ASX sector finished in the red, with energy stocks the least affected.
With the start of a new week, today was a completely different story. Across the sectors it was a sea of green, with Health Care leading the charge, up 1.97%, followed by Communication Services (1.73%) and Industrials (1.51%). The one exception was Energy, which was down 1.51% at close of play.
Bitcoin halves
Last week, Bitcoin halved for the fourth time and eToro market analyst Josh Gilbert had this to say:
“This week, investors will be focused on the market's reaction to the halving, given we’ve seen a sharp sell-off over the past few weeks amid rising geopolitical tensions and a pushback on rate cut expectations.
“The halving’s impact isn’t instant but it does, in the short term, provide the catalyst to reignite retail interest, which we’ve yet to really see in 2024 compared to previous cycles. As expected, we’re seeing a slightly muted reaction to the halving event, given its longer-term impact.
“The performance of bitcoin around halving events speaks for itself but when we add in the introduction of the institutional interest we have in 2024, this halving makes for one of the most exciting we’ve had yet. Bitcoin’s supply is being cut at a time when institutions are buying the asset by the bucket load.
“Following the halving, only 450 bitcoin are being mined each day, while institutions have accumulated 835,000 BTC since their inception. If we continue to see the interest in the ETFs we have since the start of the year, there is an evident supply/demand imbalance.
"So, although we will likely see reaction muted in the short term, particularly as geopolitical tensions persist, the closer we move to rate cuts coupled with the recent halving, bitcoin could be eyeing six figures in this next cycle."
The five at five
European Lithium to acquire Leinster Lithium Project in Ireland for Critical Metals Corp shares
European Lithium Ltd (ASX:EUR, OTCQB:EULIF) has entered a binding agreement to acquire the Leinster Lithium Project in Ireland as it continues to build a portfolio of quality exploration projects in highly prospective European lithium provinces.
Read more
International Graphite garners $6.5 million grant from WA Government for Collie operations
International Graphite Ltd (ASX:IG6) has attracted yet more attention and investment from the Western Australian Government, drawing a grant of $6.5 million to advance its plans for downstream graphite operations at its site in Collie, Western Australia.
Read more
Lightning Minerals turns focus to Brazil’s prolific Lithium Valley with acquisition of highly prospective projects
Lightning Minerals Ltd (ASX:L1M) is expanding its portfolio to Brazil and is set to pick up Bengal Mining Pty Ltd, which holds option agreements over two lithium projects in Brazil’s prolific Lithium Valley district in the state of Minas Gerais, through a wholly owned subsidiary.
Read more
Brazilian Critical Minerals fields massive 1 billion tonnes maiden REE resource at Ema Project
Brazilian Critical Minerals Ltd (ASX:BCM) has produced one of the world's largest tonnage mineral resource estimates (MRE) for fully ionic clay rare earth deposits at the Ema Rare Earths Element (REE) Project in Brazil.
Read more
Toubani Resources hits up to 2 metres at 178 g/t gold in Kobada resource definition drilling
Toubani Resources Ltd (ASX:TRE) has hit high-grade oxide gold intersections during infill drilling at the 2.4-million-ounce Kobada Gold Project in Mali, producing a screen fire assay of up to 2 metres at 178 g/t gold as part of a 19-metre intersection grading 20 g/t from 105 metres.
Read more
On your six
Tech Bytes: Six ways to use AI beyond text generation
Generative AI is making tsunami-sized waves in digital industries at the moment, threatening to cause a structural shift in the way we think about content generation and its availability.
Read more
The one to watch
Orion Minerals delivers record high-grade copper intercepts at Okiep
Orion Minerals Ltd (ASX:ORN, JSE:ORN) MD and CEO Errol Smart joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss exceptional initial results from diamond drilling at Flat Mine East, part of the Okiep Copper Project in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa.
Watch