ASX 200 Live Today - Wednesday, 9th September

Welcome to our live ASX coverage for Wednesday, September 9. Expect a high volume of posts pre-market and more periodic updates throughout the day. We'll be wrapping the blog up around 2:00 pm AEST. Let us know how we can make it even better.

Oil nears US$100 as Houthi strikes halt Saudi energy sites

[8:42 am] A wave of Houthi missile and drone attacks on southern Saudi Arabia has pushed Brent to its highest level since late July, with the spillover now visible across refined fuels, European gas and equity markets.

• Brent settled 2.1% higher to US$99.38 a barrel

• Houthi forces targeted civilian and economic sites at Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran, wounding 73 people and temporarily suspending operations at several oil facilities and utilities including the 400,000 barrel-a-day Jazan refinery

• Reported explosions at Kharg Island, Iran's main crude export terminal, lifted prices into the settlement, though crude came off its highs after Tehran flagged progress with Oman on a temporary transit route through Hormuz

• Vitol's Russell Hardy estimated Hormuz flows at about 10 million barrels a day, roughly half pre-war levels, while Goldman Sachs modestly raised its oil price estimates assuming shipping disruption persists into 2027 and Eurasia Group sees crude holding a US$85 to US$105 range

• Refined fuels are tightening faster than crude, with Europe's diesel benchmark closing in on US$200 a barrel and US average diesel prices hitting a record high on Monday, per AAA

• European gas hit a three-year high, with Dutch front-month futures up 4.7% at €76.74 a megawatt hour and storage just 67% full against a seasonal norm of 83%, less than a month before the heating season

• Qatar posted a second-quarter budget deficit of 21.2bn riyals (US$5.8bn), its widest since late 2016 and almost double the prior quarter, with LNG exports down from about 20 million tons a quarter last year to under 2 million and the IMF forecasting an economic contraction of more than 8% this year

Copper hits record high on supply squeeze outside the US

[8:40 am] Copper extended its rally to a fresh record on Tuesday, up around 18% this year as tariff-driven flows to the US drain inventories elsewhere.

• Three-month LME copper gained 1.3% to US$14,703 a ton, a fourth straight session of gains and a second consecutive record

• COMEX inventories hit a record 766,795 short tons, with the total US hoard including off-exchange stock estimated above 1 million tons

• LME warehouse stocks have shed nearly 40% since late May, while SHFE inventories are down 85% from the March peak to the lowest since January 2024

• Macquarie's Alice Fox pointed to storms in Chile, guidance downgrades, Middle East escalation and data centre demand as amplifying the squeeze

• Global mined production is at risk of its first annual decline since 2017 unless output recovers in the second half

• Zinc rose 0.5% to US$4,002 a ton, its highest in more than four years, with aluminium, nickel and iron ore all modestly higher

Source: Bloomberg

Good morning!

[8:26 am] ASX 200 futures are up 17 pts (+0.19%). Here's what happened overnight:

• Major US benchmarks closed lower for a second straight session, with the Dow hit the hardest after a sharp pullback for healthcare stocks

  • S&P 500 (-0.58%), Equal-weight S&P 500 (-1.04%)

  • Nasdaq (-0.32%), Dow (-1.18%), Russell 2000 (-0.52%)

  • US 2-year up 2 bps to 4.40%, US 10-year up 1 bp to 4.79%, US 30-year up 0.5 bp to 5.24%

• Oil continued its nerve-racking ascent, with Brent up 2.0% to US$99.25 a barrel after Houthi drone and missile attacks halted operations at Saudi energy facilities

• Two big single-stock stories to highlight – Amgen tanked 10% as Novartis's failed cholesterol trial reset the odds for an entire drug class, while Qualcomm landed Amazon as a second hyperscaler customer for its data centre chips