Ann: Half Yearly Report and Accounts, page-55

An impressive result, but surely one has to at least ask if BHP's business has reached a recent zenith (bar 2011) on the back of the biggest monetary stimulus boost in history, that is now getting unwound, and all time highs on many commodities? Not a popular comment, but with China's economic transition to services and enough empty houses to accomodate France, one surely has to at least question the continued demand and prices of many commodities in the near term at least?

https://www.mining.com/web/chinas-demand-for-metals-has-wavered-as-inventories-pile-up/

Massive short in BHP recently ahead of completion of exchange consolidation may have had as much to do with BHP's recent run-up (bouncing back from aggressive short selling spike in Jan). Pretty clear from above comments people still didn't understand the significance of short-term effect on BHP pricing. Obviously an array of London funds shorted BHP ahead of share reorganisation, not wanting AU exposure:


(That the outstanding short is now below its longer-term trend is probably more symptomatic of the removal of arbitrage between LSE and ASX).

With the exception of Copper (1590-1760 kt guidance vs 1635 FY21 production) most production guidance was at best in line with 2021 production. This was a bumper result on bumper commodity prices that may have peaked. If BHP is only holding production and commodity prices have peaked all the cost and baalnce sheet management in the world is not keeping the share price up near $50: