The first trading day of 2024 isn’t expected to be a positive one, with the ASX expected to fall as Wall St momentum slides.
ASX futures are poised to slip 0.3%, or 23 points, at today’s opening bell from Friday’s close of 7,590.8 points. It was a strong finish last week when it was within just 50 points of the record high set in August 2021.
Analysts are now saying the market needs a breather from the global rally that propelled markets into Christmas.
Katana Asset Management portfolio manager Romano Sala Tenna told The Australian Financial Review the market in the short term had ventured into a “heavily overbought territory”.
“Although January is usually a very positive month, we do need to see a bit of a breather,” Sala Tenna said.
“The market needs a bit more consolidation, and then we’ll see a breakout to the upside at some stage through 2024.”
How did last week finish?
Indices
- The Dow Jones finished at 37,689.54 down 0.05%.
- NASDAQ finished at 15,011.35 down 0.55%.
- Shanghai Composite finished at 2,974.93 a gain of 0.68%.
- The Nikkei 225 closed at 33,464.17, losing 0.22%.
- The Hang Seng finished at 17,047.39, up 0.02%.
- The S&P 500 dropped to 4,769.83, losing 0.28%.
Currencies
- US Dollar finished at 0.6812, up 0.02%.
- The Euro finished at 0.6170, down 0.02%.
- The British Pound was at 0.5350, a gain of 0.02%.
- Japanese Yen closed at 96.2080 – 0.13% higher.
- The Chinese Yuan was at 4.8230, down 0.13%.
Commodities
- Brent Crude (bbl) – 77.08, down 0.09%.
- Gold – 2,071.80 down 0.56%.
- Silver – 24.03 down 1.42%.
- WTI Crude (bbl) – 71.33 down 0.61%.
- Copper (lbs) – 3.89, down 0.84%.
The small cap market
The S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) finished 0.49% down on Friday but is up 0.48% over the last five trading days. For the year, the index gained 5.65%.
It has been a slow start to the new year on the news front, but you can read about the following and more throughout the day.
- Walkabout Resources Ltd (ASX:WKT) has started “wet” commissioning of the Crushing Circuit at the Lindi Jumbo Graphite Mine in Tanzania with the first feed of graphite ore through the entire crushing circuit.
- C29 Metals Ltd (ASX:C29) has completed five of seven planned holes, with 1816 metres drilled from its maiden Reverse Circulation (RC) drill programme at its 100% owned Mayfield Copper-Gold Project in the world-class Mt Isa Inlier.
- Miramar Resources Ltd (ASX:M2R) has expanded its 100%-owned Bangemall Project in the Gascoyne Region of WA with the recent grant of Exploration Licence E52/4301, adjacent to the high-priority Mount Vernon Ni-Cu-PGE Project.
- The board of Ionic Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:IXR, OTC:IXRRF) announced that on December 28, 2023, the Ugandan Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines (DGSM), provisionally granted the Stage 1 Large scale Mining Licence (LML00334) over Retention Licence (RL) 1693 for the Makuutu Heavy Rare Earths Project.
- Silver Mines Ltd (ASX:SVL, OTC:SLVMF) non-executive director Jonathan Battershill has started his role as managing director effective January 1, 2024.