Good News & Bad News, page-33621

I love this comment - and we are supposed to be shifting to Clean Energy

Fossil fuels outperform lithium as markets wait for central banks

Investing is rarely easy and obvious, and that’s proved to be the case since June 30^th, with ESG/lithium stocks struggling while “dirty energy” names shine even as the globe embraces EVs and a clean world into the future:

Winners: New Hope (NHC) +30%, Woodside Energy (WDS) +9.8% and Santos (STO) +4.4%.

Losers: Allkem (AKE) -22.4%, IGO Ltd (IGO) -14%, and Pilbara Minerals (PLS) -13.5%.

The performance from the major coal stocks has been mixed of late, with New Hope Corp (NHC) significantly outperforming Whitehaven (WHC), whose share price has been punished as they consider buying two major coal mines that are jointly owned by BHP Group (BHP) and Japan’s Mitsubishi – more on NHC later in today’s report. At this stage, we don’t know if WHC will prove successful with their bids, but for now, the company has put their buyback on hold, i.e., it makes sense if you are about to spend $4.5-5 billion! Assuming they don’t overpay for the assets, we like the move, especially after coal has fallen by over 50% since mid-2022.