The S&P/ASX200 is lower today, dropping 45.30 points or 0.57% to 7,926.30.
The worst performers were South32 Ltd and Liontown Ltd, which were down 13.01% and 3.98% respectively. The index has lost 0.41% for the last five days but sits 1.95% below its 52-week high.
Across the board, the sectors were in the red just after lunch, with a couple crossing back into positive territory at the close of play.
Real Estate was the biggest drag on the index, bottoming out at -1.87% and Energy not far behind, dropping -1.67%, while Consumer Discretionary was the least-worst performer, down only -0.01% after lunch and in the green by close of play (adding 0.16%).
The Biden dam breaks
Of course, plenty of chins were wagging following yesterday's announcement that President Joe Biden has dropped out of the presidential race.
The 81-year-old finally bowed to pressure from donors, big wigs and concerned Democratic members of Congress following a poor debate performance on CNN three weeks ago.
Pressure had been building as the party came to the conclusion that not only would Biden have little chance of winning re-election but his presence on the ballot was jeopardising down-ballot Democrats and risking both the Senate and the House.
On the way out, Biden endorsed his VP Kamala Harris to lead the ticket, allaying the worst of the fears of chaos in his wake, but the energy boost wasn’t enough to convince analysts that we won’t see a Trump return to office in November:
“The betting favourite has only lost twice since 1866, with Trump winning in 2016 and Truman in 1948,” said IG senior analyst Tony Sycamore.
If Harris pulls it off, it means a relatively smooth continuation of the current administration: “Should the Democrats under Harris win the US election, policy is expected to be relatively unchanged from that under Biden,” Sycamore continues.
“This means the key question is whether the Democrats under Harris can prevent a Republican clean sweep in November and ensure the status quo of a divided Congress, which reduces the more extreme outcomes under Trump.
“In recognition of this, we have seen evidence of this in early trading on Monday, with the US dollar softening marginally.
“Aside from political developments in the Presidential race while Friday's global IT outage raised concerns about the disaster recovery plans of many of the world's largest organisations, the resolution of the outage should see the focus of markets return to upcoming Q2 2024 earnings reports from tech giants Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) (Wednesday morning Sydney time) and this week's key economic data.”
ETF growth on the rise
The ETF market in Australia is undergoing rapid expansion, says Webull Securities Australia, surpassing $200 billion in assets under management, growing by $20 billion year to date in 2024.
The company says that while around half of the 2024 inflows to date have been directed to ASX-listed international equity ETFs, its offering of US ETFs is exciting local traders.
“The rapid expansion of the ASX-listed ETF market is encouraging; furthermore, the diversity of US-listed ETFs has local investors equally excited,” notes Webull CEO Rob Talevski.
“Beyond US index ETFs, traders can now access long and short US sector ETFs as well as long and short single-stock ETFs, offering the ability to leverage their exposure to stocks like Tesla, Nike (NYSE:NKE), and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), using both long/bullish trades, or short/bearish trades.”
The five at five
Triangle Energy close to drilling milestone with Booth-1 well spudding within two weeks
Triangle Energy (Global) Ltd and its L7 Joint Venture partners Strike Energy and New Zealand Oil and Gas are set to spud the Booth-1 well in the North Perth Basin within two weeks after taking possession of the Ventia 106 rig.
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Magnetite Mines in testing breakthrough with 'green iron' grade concentrate produced using salt water
Magnetite Mines Ltd (ASX:MGT) has taken material steps to reduce the cost of developing premium-grade iron concentrates suitable for the ‘green iron’ market, leveraging metallurgical test work to validate a seawater-based processing method.
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Anson Resources approved to drill Ajana prospects in bid to lift lead resource and identify critical minerals
Anson Resources Ltd (ASX:ASN, OTCQB:ANSNF) has received drilling approval for the Mary Springs prospects at its Ajana Project in the Mid West region of Western Australia, where it is seeking to identify extensions to the 390,000 tonnes lead JORC mineral resource and associated critical minerals.
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Maximus Resources discovers lithium in pegmatites up to 1.76% at Larkinville
Maximus Resources Ltd (ASX:MXR, OTC:MXRRF) has confirmed the presence of spodumene-bearing lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites at the Larkinville Lithium Project in Western Australia after field mapping revealed rock chip samples assaying up to 1.76% lithium oxide.
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GTI Energy set for Lo Herma uranium resource expansion and upgrade drilling ahead of scoping study
GTI Energy Ltd has deployed a rotary drilling rig to the Lo Herma in-situ recovery (ISR) uranium project in Wyoming, US, after securing all permits, bonds and access arrangements for a 17,000-metre resource expansion program.
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On your six
AuKing Mining looks to add niobium-REE project in British Columbia to portfolio
Amid a global search for sources of critical minerals, AuKing Mining Ltd has entered into an option agreement to acquire the Myoff Creek niobium/rare earth elements (REE) project in British Columbia, Canada.
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The one to watch
Far East Gold fields high-grade gold from Woyla Project
Far East Gold Ltd (ASX:FEG, OTC:FEGDF) managing director Shane Menere sits down with Proactive’s Jonathan Jackson to discuss additional high-grade gold assay results – including 20 metres at 7.57 g/t gold from the Victory vein – in its maiden scout drilling program at the Woyla Copper Gold Project’s Aloe Rek prospect area.
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