ASX to edge higher, Nvidia paces tech sell-off
Still, trading was not in one direction. While Nvidia led the magnificent seven lower with a 2.7 per cent slide, Intel surged more than 8 higher. Palantir tumbled near 9 per cent. Palo Alto leapt 3.5 per cent.
In a note, Strategas Securities' Nicholas Bohnsack said while it's difficult to poke holes in the bull case, assets are increasingly priced for perfection. 'Prevailing equity valuations are in the 94th percentile of their historical range and corporate credit spreads are now at about 28-year tights.'
Bonhsack also said while policy uncertainty has eased, implementation hurdles persist. And while data supports a shift to easier monetary policy, the Federal Reserve will want to remain vigilant, given inflation is 'sticky' and growth has moderated.
Among the key results expected on Wednesday: Santos, James Hardie, Stockland and Magellan Financial. Follow our reporting season coverage here.
Market highlights
ASX 200 futures are pointing up 15 points or 0.2 per cent to 8870.
All US prices near 2.15pm New York time.
Today's agenda
The Economic Reform Roundtable continues for a second day. Follow our coverage here. The Treasury's meeting agenda can be found here.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is widely expected to cut its key rate by 25 basis points to 3 per cent at a policy meeting on Wednesday. The decision is expected at 12pm AEST. NAB said: 'The key outstanding question is: how much further might rates go after the cut to 3.0 per cent? Our BNZ cousins suggest one more nudge to 2.75 per cent is a minimum requirement.'
RBA assistant governors Michelle McPhee and Brad Jones will participate on an online panel called 'The Future of Money' at 12pm AEST hosted by the Economic Society of Australia.
Later in the day, the UK and the EU will release July CPI data.
Top stories
Labor's spending made RBA's job harder: Lowe | Former Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe says the government has lost budget discipline and its handouts to households made the central bank 'the baddie'.
| The nation's top stock-pickers sought refuge from excessively valued banks by piling into the healthcare giant. It worked, until it didn't.
| Pensioners with assets will have their benefits pared back next month after the government decided to lift the deeming rate by 0.5 of a percentage point.
| The big four bank's new chief executive, Nuno Matos, is expected to make several other key hires in coming weeks as he finalises his new front bench.
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Courier-Mail
23 minutes ago
- Courier-Mail
Why you may have to wait to benefit from the interest rate cut
Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Next playlist item Mute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. Close Modal Dialog This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. Play Mute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently playing live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen How are rate cuts influencing buyer activity? 02:39 Millions of homeowners will benefit from the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest rate cut but it may be a bit too early to start celebrating. The RBA cut the official cash rate by 0.25 percentage points on August 12 to 3.6 per cent, bringing relief to many mortgageholders. But while many of the major banks have passed on the rate cut, borrowers won't necessarily see their repayments drop immediuately. Research by says that if even if a bank passes on the rate cut as most lenders won't adjust repayments until the start of your next monthly billing cycle. For example, if your billing cycle starts on the 15th, your lower repayments won't take effect until September 15 — despite your rate dropping on a date prior to that. In short, your interest starts falling straight away, but your actual repayment amount might not change for a few weeks. MORE NEWS: Bankrupt property spruiker cops new $1m blow Mystery speed sign swap stuns Aussie town Block team confronted after shock move mortgage expert Debbie Hays said the key to understanding when your repayments will reduce comes down to knowing how your billing cycle works. 'Mortgage interest is calculated daily but charged monthly in arrears,' Hays said. 'In other words, your lender calculates your interest and repayments based on the balance of your loan and the interest rate over the past 30 days, which is why changes to repayments don't take effect immediately after a rate cut. 'Even if you make your mortgage repayments weekly or fortnightly, most lenders still operate on a monthly billing cycle. 'If you're unsure when your billing cycle starts, check your home loan statements for the date your interest balance is applied.' But Hay said that while some lenders automatically reduce your mortgage repayments when they pass on a rate cut, others require you to contact them to request the adjustment. Understanding your mortgage billing cycle Your billing cycle is usually tied to your loan settlement date. So, if your loan was settled on the 15th of X month — your billing cycle likely starts on the 15th of each month moving forward. This cycle determines when interest is calculated and applied to your loan, as well as when your repayments are due. Even if you pay weekly or fortnightly, your lender still tracks interest and repayment schedules based on this monthly cycle — which is why changes like rate cuts may not immediately show up in your repayment amount until the next cycle begins. How much homeowners will save with the August rate cut A borrower with a $600,000 mortgage will save an additional $90 per month from the August rate cut, bringing total monthly savings to $273 since the RBA began lowering rates. For a $1 million mortgage, the August cut alone will reduce repayments by $150 per month, with total monthly savings reaching $456 since the start of the cutting cycle.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Markets live: ASX to recover, Nvidia and tech slump drags Wall Street lower
The Australian share market is likely to edge higher despite a sell-off across Nvidia and other US tech stocks overnight. In economic news, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is widely expected to deliver another interest rate cut amid slowing economic growth and rising unemployment. See how the trading day unfolds on our blog. Disclaimer: this blog is not intended as investment advice.
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
Cameroon's star is on the rise. These are the minerals fuelling it
Cameroon's mining sector is starting to attract global attention Growing bauxite and rutile endowment shows there are giants to be found Interest could deliver rich rewards to companies at the forefront When one considers mining destinations in Africa, countries such as Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Namibia and Tanzania are normally at the top of the list. In years gone by, Cameroon has barely made the cut. The country's mining sector is still dominated by small-scale artisanal mining, while industrial-scale operations that can truly benefit the economy are at a nascent stage. At least part of that might stem from hesitation towards investing in one of two countries that pulled the rug out from under Australian iron ore hopeful Sundance Resources. The now delisted company had sought to develop the giant Mbalam-Nabeba project that straddled the border between Cameroon and the Republic of Congo but first had the former fail to implement the exploitation permit in late 2020 and the latter revoke its mining permit and award it to a little known company with Chinese backing. While the Republic of Congo has since settled with Sundance, Cameroon allegedly declined to turn out for an arbitration hearing in late January 2025 and that matter is still in limbo. Despite this, investors are starting to sense the winds of change. Canaccord Genuity mining analyst Tim Hoff – who has had an excellent run of predicting winners with his Diggers and Dealers stock selections – says Cameroon has not been seriously explored for some time. This is despite the country having interesting geological features that weren't obvious in retrospect, which resulted in exploration never quite hitting the point where the market sat up and took notice. This is also why there are world-class assets sitting outside of the mainstream just waiting to be picked up. 'I think that's probably the largest driver of why Cameroon is shaping up as an emerging country to look for these things,' Hoff, one of a handful of local analysts to have traversed the West African country, said. "We've also seen shifts in regulatory policy and a convergence of significant discoveries, financial backing and policy changes to present an opportunity. "I think the (Cameroon) Government is keenly aware that forestry, which is one of their major export markets, is not sustainable in its current form and it's going to look to ban the export of uncut wood over the next few years. "The Government has taken a positive step to look at their resources and say how can we attract investment and how can we shift our economic outlook, and resources has certainly come to the front there." DY6 Metals chief executive officer Cliff Fitzhenry added the company saw Cameroon as a highly prospective mining jurisdiction that remained vastly underexplored despite its significant endowment in a range of minerals. "The Cameroonian government is pro-business and is actively promoting the mining sector (new Mining Code in 2023) as a key pillar of its National Development Strategy," he added. "Historically oil & gas focused, the country is courting investment from public and private operators, and has welcomed delegations from a range of mid-tier and large mining companies over the past year." Fitzhenry noted that the underexplored nature of Cameroon and the potential to make a significant discovery of scale attracted DY6 to the country. Attention incoming Cameroon's days of obscurity might be coming to a close though with two notable projects operated by Australian juniors having demonstrated that there are indeed world-class resource deposits present in-country. Canyon Resources' (ASX:CAY) Minim Martap bauxite project is unarguably the poster child for the path towards minerals development in Cameroon with progress underway on key infrastructure workstreams and an updated definitive feasibility study due in August 2025. This is aimed at bringing Minim Martap, which has a resource of 1027Mt grading 45.3% Al2O3, into production in early 2026 with the first bauxite shipment in H1 2026. Highlighting the confidence that Cameroon has in the project, AFG Bank Cameroon provided the company with a medium-term syndicated credit facility of US$140m to fund infrastructure for the project. 'I think the country will use Minim Martap as a flagship project to say, we permitted a mine, we've been supporting this company with debt, we have been supporting the company with its plans around expanding our rail and so on,' Hoff said. Rutile interest growing While Minim Martap is drawing attention to Cameroon as a mining destination, bauxite is by no means the only mineral of interest. Interest in natural rutile – a high-value titanium mineral – has been growing steadily thanks in no small part to Sovereign Metals' (ASX:SVM) progress with the Tier 1 Kasiya project, which has a resource of 1.8 billion tonnes grading 1% rutile, in Malawi. Mining giant Rio Tinto already has a large stake in Sovereign and its Kasiya project and is reported to be interested in increasing its exposure to titanium supply. While there is no confirmation that Rio might be interested, rutile is starting to come into its own as a mineral resource of interest in Cameroon. This was sparked by Lion Rock Minerals (ASX:LRM) – then known as Peak Minerals, which discovered the titanium feedstock at its ~8800km2 Minta project early in 2025. Its exploration has identified high-priority zones across a 3500km2 area that's prospective for mineral sands rich in rutile, zircon and monazite rare earths. Rutile grades of up to 69.8% have been noted at Minta while Minta East has seen zircon grades of up to 21%. More importantly, drilling has confirmed the continuity and scale of the rutile-rich mineralisation at the project with every one of the 330 holes drilled to date that had reported assays having intersected heavy minerals. This has extended the defined mineralised footprint to a rather mind boggling 2125km2. Rutile-dominant deposits are incredibly rare and Hoff says it is exactly this kind of mineralisation that Lion Rock's exploration has been turning up. 'When you've got a high rutile content, it essentially equals a high value deposit,' he added. 'And this is starting to stand out in a big way from its peers, from what we're seeing to date. 'It's one of these fantastic stories where we have a small explorer that (has) gone in and taken the risk early and is now delivering results.' Hoff adds that when a discovery of global significance is made, the companies making them often hit an inflexion point where the market becomes very supportive, highlighting WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) and its Luni niobium find in Western Australia. 'No one knew niobium would be in the West Arunta. There's no historical precedence. But they found it nonetheless and now we have a company that is looking to develop a globally significant niobium project,' he said. 'The analogy you draw from it is nobody thought we would find a globally significant rutile deposit in Cameroon and now we need to go through the process of developing a project like this. 'Rutile has a more visible profile than niobium so it should be much simpler for investors to understand.' DY6 Metals (ASX:DY6) is also on the rutile bandwagon and has made quick progress since picking up the Central Rutile and Douala Basin projects in the country in April 2025. The two projects cover a total area of 7554km2 – including recent additions at Central Rutile – and are highly prospective for HM and rutile. Central Rutile sits within the Central Cameroon area that is known for historical production of high purity rutile recorded from artisanal mining of the alluvial deposits around Nanga-Eboko between 1935 and 1955. Recent studies have highlighted the similarities of the region to the Lilongwe Plain of Central Malawi, where Sovereign Metals is en route to developing the Kasiya project. Fitzhenry said the company saw the Central region of Cameroon as developing into an emerging, globally significant rutile province with high potential to host Tier 1 residual, high purity, natural rutile deposits. "The Central Rutile project is our flagship project and is a large landholding highly prospective for residual natural rutile deposits," he added. "We are rapidly advancing our exploration efforts and have embarked in a project wide soil geochemical survey. This will allow us to map out the highest grade areas of the project which will be the early focus of our maiden drilling campaign." Early reconnaissance exploration by the company had identified visible natural rutile from both alluvial and eluvial sources with a 100km2 area of large residual natural rutile nuggets, heavy minerals and residual rutile mineralisation observed at the Bounde licence. XRF analysis of the rutile nuggets has returned average titanium dioxide grades of 95.64% with low levels of impurities. While no replacement for laboratory analysis, calibration of the onsite portable XRF analysers will enable accurate, real-time geochemical analysis in the field. DY6 is also setting up infrastructure including a heavy mineral sands laboratory in Cameroon that will allow it to rapidly and cheaply process in-country.
