Bank of America's bullish predictions on gold and copper prices. Picture Getty
News
Aussie shares are set to rise again on Wednesday after Wall Street ticked up modestly. At 8am AEDT, the ASX 200 index futures contract was pointing up by +0.4%.
Overnight, the S&P 500 rose by +0.14%, the blue chips Dow Jones index was down by -0.02%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed by +0.32%.
US treasury yields dropped -5bp from a four-month high ahead of the US inflation report tonight, suggesting traders are positioning themselves for a soft print.
Gold stocks will be in focus today after the bullion price touched briefly above US$2,380 an ounce, extending its rally to hit a new record.
To stocks, the start of the US Q1 earnings season gets underway in earnest on Friday, which will provide the next catalyst for the market.
Nvidia’s shares fell nearly -2% after Intel revealed a new version of its AI chip at its Vision event. Intel’s shares rose +1%.
Moderna jumped by +6% to a three-month high after the company revealed positive responses in its early-stage cancer vaccine developed with Merck.
Alphabet lifted 1.3% to a one-year high after announcing a new video-creation app, Google Vids, which also utilises AI.
Meanwhile, respected market commentator Mohamed El-Erian said Europe’s ECB could cut rates faster than the Fed Reserve.
“The ECB is going to signal quite strongly that June will be when they cut, something the Fed will not do,” El-Erian said, adding that USD currency could trade at par with the EUR when that happens.
The price of gold has risen over the past eight trading sessions, hitting a fresh record overnight.
At the time of writing, gold is trading at US$2,351.60 an ounce.
A note from Bank of America’s analysts say they project gold prices to jump to US$3,000 per ounce by 2025, buoyed by strong demand from central banks. The Chinese central bank, in particular, has amassed over 200 tonnes of the yellow metal in 2023 alone.
“And if the Fed ultimately starts cutting rates, investors should return to the market, also offsetting potentially lower Chinese investment demand as sentiment there improves and the economy accelerates.
“We had previously proposed a US$2,400/oz price estimate if the Fed cut rates in 1Q24; we now raise that and see gold rallying to US$3,000/oz by 2025,” said BoA’s note.
BoA is also sounding the alarm on a potential copper supply crisis, predicting that copper prices are expected to average US$10,750 per tonne in 2025, and US$12,000 per tonne in 2026 (copper currently trades at around US$9,411 per tonne).
“Tight copper mine supply is increasingly constraining refined production; the much-discussed lack of mine projects is finally starting to bite,” said BoA.
Gold price was up +0.53% to US$2,352.25 an ounce.
Oil prices came off another -1.3%, with Brent now trading at US$89.45 a barrel.
The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield fell by 5bp (bond prices higher) to 4.37%.
Iron ore 62% fe climbed further by +1.6% to US$104.33 a tonne.
The Aussie dollar lifted by +0.4% to US66.28.
Bitcoin meanwhile slumped -3.5% in the last 24 hours to US$69,236.
Kinatico (ASX:KYP)
During Q3FY24, Kinatico earned $2.5m in SaaS revenue, an increase of 73% on pcp. Annualised SaaS revenue is now more than $10m. SaaS revenue for the quarter comprised 36% of Kinatico’s total Q3 revenue of $7.0m, an increase of 0.5% on pcp.
Wildcat Resources (ASX:WC8)
Exploration drilling beneath the Leia deposit has discovered a thick lithium mineralised repetition named the “Luke Pegmatite”, with best intercepts of: 41.0m @ 1.0% Li2O from 267m. Meanwhile diamond drilling at Leia continues to return impressive new results including: 68.0m @ 1.4% Li2O from 337m.
Neurotech (ASX:NTI)
Nurotech announced the 54th and final patient has completed their last visit for the Phase II/III NTIASD2 clinical trial for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The trial recruited patients aged 8-17 (inclusive) with Level 2 (requiring substantial support) and Level 3 (requiring very substantial support) autism, who have now completed eight weeks of daily NTI164 treatment (the randomisation period of the trial).
Dart Mining (ASX:DTM)
Dart provided an update on field activities across the Dorchap Lithium Project in Northeast Victoria. Field reconnaissance of pegmatite targets highlighted by the LiDAR survey has been completed, with initial results received. Highlights include: Sample 70847 – 2m @ 2.35% Li2O – Boones North Dyke, and Sample 70840 – 5m @ 2.00% Li2O – Boones North Dyke.
Argenica Therapeutics (ASX:AGN)
Argenica has successfully dosed five patients in its acute ischaemic stroke Phase 2 clinical trial, representing the first cohort of patients to be reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), highlighting a promising early recruitment response to date. The patients, who presented to both the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital emergency departments, were enrolled into the trial following meeting the inclusion criteria: a confirmed diagnosis of an acute ischaemic stoke caused by a large vessel occlusion (LVO) and were eligible for mechanical thrombectomy.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Neurotech is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.
News
News
News
