ASX News LIVE | ASX Opens Flat as the S&P 500 Hits High, Commodities Pressure Mining Juniors

The ASX 200 closed up +0.51% at 7,514.9 today, its third consecutive day in the green and its longest streak so far this year.

After the closing bell today, the ASX is now up +0.77% for the past 12 months of trading.

Eight sectors finished up today, with top performances in Healthcare (+1.02%) and Financials (0.75%).

Meanwhile, yesterday’s top sector, Discretionary fell -0.35%.

Today’s individual stock performances saw notable movements from Mayur Resources, up 17.50%, and Judo Bank, gaining 17.11%.

On the ASX 200, the biggest movement was Arcadium lithium, up 4.93%, and South32, up 4.44%.

Both are rebounding off losses seen yesterday as mining juniors faced a wave of fear within markets as low commodity prices hit the spotlight.

Overseas traders are keeping a close eye on Asian markets as China continues to melt down while Japan melts up.

China’s Hang Seng index reached sub-15,000 levels after sharp drops that have its value below 1991, while in contrast, in Japan, shares hit a 34-year high as the Bank of Japan held firm.

The Bank of Japan has said it intends to keep its ultra-low interest rates for now as it awaits more wage growth data for its next move.

For now, the ASX will be keenly watching both the US and Asian markets for its next signals.

Karoon Energy [ASX:KAR] shares dropped by -3.65% today after it revised its production guidance for FY24.

The company blamed ‘operational issues relating to equipment in the gaslift dehydration unit on the FPSO’.

These issues have meant that since November 2023, its Brazilian production has been significantly underproducing.

Of the two wells affected, one was returned to normal production within a week, while the second well remains offline.

The latest production guidance for CY24 is now 7.2-9.0 million barrels, compared to the previous 8-10 million barrels.

Unit production costs have also increased, with the costs for the next 12 months estimated to be between US$10.5-15 per BOE, compared to the previous range of US$9-14 per BOE.

As the S&P 500 hits another record high, I thought it would be worthwhile to break down the index in more detail.

The powerhouse that is Nvidia is no surprise to anyone on this list, as is the strong performance of Microsoft, which has seen market share move its way from its Azure cloud and partnerships with Open AI.

But the true extent of the lop-sided nature of these indices is incredible.

These two stocks alone accounted for approximately 75% of the S&P 500’s gains this year.

While the largest 20 stocks overall accounted for 110% of the index’s gains, the remaining 480 stocks were actually net negative for growth of the stocks.

Source: Bespokeinvest

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The ASX 200 is up by +0.70% to 7,529.2 around midday as the market follows the rally on Wall St.

Healthcare helped carry the market today, with the sector up by 1.48%

CSL gained 1.35%, while Polynovo jumped 8.05% in the morning’s trading.

Other stocks on the move today included Judo Bank, which has jumped double digits after announcing positive results for its 1H24 trading.

Education testing company IDP Education fell by 8% after Canada announced changes to its intake of international students, which Goldman Sachs claimed would likely hurt its trading volumes.

Judo Bank [ASX:JDO] has seen its shares jump by 9% in this morning’s trading as the company released stellar 1H24 results.

Judo’s 1H24 trading update showed profit before tax (PBT) of $67m for the half.

That’s up 24% from the prior period, as the company said it saw continued expansion of its lending growth and strong net interest margins, with minimal write-offs.

The company’s unaudited results showed an approximate $800m in net lending for the half, showing a 3x business credit growth.

For its guidance for 2H24, Judo said it expects PBT of $40-45 million, which would result in FY24 PBT of $107-112 million.

The company noted that it felt it was still operating in an ‘uncertain environment‘ and would remain disciplined in its approach to growth, targeting a lending book of $10.5-10.7 billion by June 2024.

For FY25, Judo is targeting profit growth of 15% or higher.

The full audited results will be released on 20 February.

Bitcoin [BTC] has fallen to a seven-week low overnight.

Falling 4.50% to US$39,630, the cryptocurrency has fallen below US $40k for the first time since the launch of the ETF 12 days ago.

Here is what the past two weeks have looked like for BTC, down -12.69% in two weeks.

Source: TradingView

Similar moves have been seen in the wider crypto space, with number two coin Ethereum also falling -5.43% to US$ 2,316.45.

Of the top 20 coins, only one is in the green in the past seven days, with TRON holding with a +0.32% gain in the past week.

Bitcoin has been up around 70% since the run-up to the SEC’s approval of the BTC ETF, which has seen traders rush into the ETF space.

For now, cryptocurrencies are struggling to compete with Wall St as the tech boom continues to draw in investors hoping to capture some of the gains.

Good morning. Charlie here

The ASX 200 opened flat but is set for an uncertain day as Wall Street shows modest gains. Despite the smaller moves, the S&P 500 still reached another record high overnight.

In ASX news, we’re seeing a lot of ink spilled and selling pressure in the smaller-cap mining sectors.

Low prices in battery metals have put pressure on the miners, with moves yesterday opening the floodgates for big drops in lithium players and the closure of mines.

Lithium’s price is down nearly 90% from January 2023, while nickel, cobalt, and palladium are down ~40% in the past 12 months.

Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals announced yesterday that its nickel mines in WA would be shut down, causing the knock-on closure of BHP’s processing plants.

Overnight Wall St inched up higher, with small gains across the major indices and a strong 2% gain on the Russell 2000 small cap index.

Meanwhile, big drops were seen in Chinese benchmarks, with the Hang Seng falling -2.27% below 15,000. That’s now below the point seen in the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China.

Other notable movements were seen in the Crypto space, with heavy falls on BTC and ETH, with Bitcoin now below US$ 40,000, its lowest level post-EFT launch.

Wall Street: Dow +0.36%, Nasdaq +0.32%, S&P 500 +0.22%.

Overseas: FTSE +0.35%, STOXX +0.71%, Nikkei +1.62%, SSE -2.68%

The Aussie dollar gained -0.40% to US 65.69 cents.

US 10-year bond yields fell -2bps to 4.11%.

Australian 10-year bond yields fell -7bps to 4.22%.

Gold down -0.30% to US$2,021.53. Silver fell -1.92% to US$22.09.

Bitcoin fell -4.29% to US$39,891, while Ethereum fell -5.59% to US$2,323.

Oil Brent rose +1.62% to US$79.83, while WTI Crude rose +1.70% to US$74.66.

Iron ore fell -0.8% to US$128.85 a tonne.