ASX 200 futures are pointing to a -0.2% slide at open today, after it emerged Donald Trump is pondering a direct attack on Iran – a decision he says he’s going to ruminate on for “the next two weeks” before issuing orders.
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While U.S. trading was closed for the Juneteenth public holiday, traders were rattled by the suggestion: S&P 500 and Dow Jones futures both dropped -0.9%.
Trump added, “There’s a substantial chance of negotiations” – but it changed little.
Outside U.S. diplomacy, EU foreign ministers will meet Iranian officials in Geneva on Friday.
Stocks across Europe haven’t been much better than Wall Street’s futures posturing overnight either, with the Stoxx giving away -0.8% while the Frankfurt-based DAX dumped as much as -1.1% in value through to its trading close.
Russia has also today admitted it’s “on the brink of going into a recession,” with more and more poor indicators piling up against Moscow and its economy.
And, the Bank of England has (as widely expected) held interest rates at 4.25%.
Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) has been ordered to pay $214 million to settle a long-running class action from U.S. investors who had claimed their losses had come from “false” claims regarding the Oyu Tolgoi copper project in Mongolia.
Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) has ended the week by unveiling a $97 billion investment in AI lab Anthropic to bolster its customer assistance and fraud detection.
And, Amplia Therapeutics (ASX:ATX) is looking to wrap up Week 25 with another green surge; the biopharmaceutical company burst a heady +190% yesterday after successfully recording a second complete response with its best-in-class FAK inhibitor, Narmafotinib, in ongoing pancreatic cancer trials.
Unemployment numbers have come in, too: They held steady at 4.1% through May.
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Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 64.8 US cents.
To commodities, which are in the greenback,
Iron Ore has eked up, adding +0.5% to $92.90 a tonne in Singapore,
Brent Crude is trading at $76.39,
Gold is trading at $3,369 per ounce, and,
US natgas futures are at +2% higher at $4.07 per gigajoule.
That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.
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