The ASX gave up yesterday’s gains ahead of the final RBA meeting of 2022.
Governor Philip Lowe is expected to announce the eighth consecutive interest rate hike, and pundits are predicting a 25 basis point increase.
Ahead of the meeting, the benchmark ASX 200 was down 0.1% to 7,316 points, while the All Ords dipped 0.2% to 7,512.
New York was also seeing red overnight as the US dollar and bond yields staged a comeback.
A strong selloff saw all four major indices and all 11 sectors close below the line.
Looking at commodities now — oil prices are skirting closer to a 10-month low.
Crude closed a volatile session in the red after the 34th OPEC Plus meeting and prolonged discussions around a Russian oil cap.
Bullion is also trading softer — the precious metal dropped 1.7% to fetch US$1,779 overnight.
In today’s top stories, Bellevue Gold has flagged a capital raise as it prepares to generate its first gold bar.
The gold stock wants to bring in $70 million to de-risk its namesake gold project in WA.
In other news, Bank of Queensland’s executive chair will step down from the role after the company appoints its new CEO.
Patrick Allaway will move to a non-executive seat once the search winds up — one week after CEO George Frazis was let go.
On the small-cap front, Stellar Resources has come out on top with a new exploration licence over some highly prospective Tasmanian VMS targets.
And Alchemy Resources is on the hunt for gold and lithium at its Lake Rebecca Project. Reconnaissance mapping and sampling is planned as the explorer works to define its aircore drill targets.