Rise and Shine: What you need to know before the ASX opens

Today on Stockhead, Dr Copper says it’s Christmas in May, WFH is here to stay, and the ETF you never saw coming.

But first…to markets.

THE DAY AHEAD

It’s Rates Day and today’s announcement from the RBA could prove to be “quite an important meeting”, Westpac says.

ASX investors are about to get a number of key updates on monetary policy, with a busy RBA schedule this week to kick off the new month.

Today’s meeting will be followed by a speech on Thursday from the bank’s deputy governor Guy Debelle called “Monetary Policy during Covid”, before the release of its quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy (SoMP) on Friday.

And Westpac chief economist Bill Evans noted that ahead of the previous two SoMPs (in February and November), the RBA announced key changes at its monthly policy meeting.

Sam Jacobs has all you need to watch for here.

After jumping out of the blocks yesterday the ASX 200 only finished slightly upwards, closing at 7,029 points – 0.04 per cent higher than Friday. Small caps had a worse day – the ASX Emerging Companies Index closed 1.24 per cent lower at 2,103 points.

TRADING HALTS

Today:

Odyssey Gold (ASX:ODY) – exploration results
Amplia Therapeutics (ASX:ATX) – capital raising
Arrow Minerals (ASX:AMD) – capital raising
Mobecom (ASX:MBM) – transaction

Wednesday:

Race Oncology (ASX:RAC) – capital raising
Surefire Resources (ASX:SRN) – drilling results
Clean Seas Seafood (ASX:CSS) – capital raising
New World Resources (ASX:NWC) – capital raising
Total Brain (ASX:TTB) – commercial contract
Carbonxt (ASX:CG1) – capital raising
Black Cat Syndicate (ASX:BC8) – capital raising
Octanex (ASX:OXX) – capital raising

MARKETS

Gold: $US1,792.78 ($2,291.36) (+1.37%)

Silver: $US26.98 ($33.53) (+3.86%)

Oil (WTI): $US64.54 (+1.53%)

Oil (Brent): $US66.76 (+1.26%)

Coal: $US91.88 (+1.64%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US179.63 (+0.18%)

AUD/USD: $US0.7758 (+0.60%)

Bitcoin: $US56,694.28 (-0.46%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING YESTERDAY?

And we got a late update on Merchant House (ASX:MHI), which provided further details to the ASX on an announcement about an asset sale that saw it tripling in one day. Its shares will remain suspended and enquiries are ongoing. The company says it chose to sell out as its margins had been eroded and while it was not possible to state how much the closure would affect the company it would avoid sustained losses from an uneconomic operation.

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Also, be sure to check in at 10.20am each day for our daily 10 at 10 column — a live summary of winners & losers at the opening bell.

YESTERDAY’S WINNERS

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Junior explorer Taruga Minerals Ltd (ASX:TAR) led out of the gates and closed 78 per cent higher, after flagging a high-grade copper hit at its Wyacca prospect in South Australia.

Also rising strongly was Norwest Energy (ASX:NWE), which didn’t have any operational news but released a Form 604 to advise that major shareholder Mineral Resources had acquired an additional 204,606,160 shares on-market, bringing its stake in the company to 19.88 per cent.

In a good day for energy stocks, Marenica Energy (ASX:MEY) also rose strongly, posting a gain of 28pc to close at new all-time highs of 20.5c.

YESTERDAY’S LOSERS

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