Morning Wrap: ASX 200 to open higher, iron ore rises to over US$100/tonne, silver at 2012 highs

Will the ASX 200 smash another record high today? Futures are pointing to a small gain at the open, following Wall Street's lead. Iron ore prices are back over the US$100 per tonne level, copper is back over the US$10,000 mark, and gold has smashed through another record high. Even silver, a one-time darling of the commodity market, is at its highest level since 2012. Basically, as long as you're not an oil trader, it's looking pretty good.

Let's dive in.

S&P 500 SESSION CHART

A choppy session ends with the S&P 500 finishing well off its lows. (Source: TradingView)

OVERNIGHT MARKETS

• US equities were higher in Thursday trading as stocks rebounded from Wednesday's mostly lower session.

  • The S&P 500 posted another all time high while Nasdaq ended with fourth-straight gain.

  • Outperformers included semis (especially Micron, which had its best day in nearly 13 years thanks to an upward revision to its sales and revenue forecasts) China tech, small caps, and airlines

• Treasuries mostly weaker with curve flattening; the 2s/10s spread moving down after six sessions of widening.

• US Dollar index down 0.4%.

• Gold finished up 0.4%. WTI crude settled down 2.9% on Saudi headlines while Copper ended up 3.3% amid China stimulus headlines; tracking for its sixth week of gains in the past seven.

CORPORATE NEWS

• Union representative of striking Boeing workers say they are 'not interested' in latest offer (Bloomberg)

• OpenAI's Altman says recent executive departures are unrelated to corporate restructure (Bloomberg)

• Chevron and Hess agree Hess CEO will not join company board as part of merger (Bloomberg)

• Moody's cuts Alaska Air's credit grade to junk status after company said it plans to issue secured debt (Bloomberg)

ECONOMY

• US mortgage rates fall for third straight week to lowest level in two years (Bloomberg)

• Yellen says economy on 'soft landing' path, Fed's policy rate will fall to neutral level (Reuters)

GEOPOLITICS

• Israel's Netanyahu says troops will keep fighting Hezbollah "with full force" as U.S., France propose ceasefire (CBS)

• Biden announces additional $8 billion in military aid for Ukraine (Reuters)

Stocks trading ex-dividend – Please note that as of next week, the ex-dividend data will be presented as Company (Ticker) – Yield % based on previous close.

• Fri 27 Sep: Tasmea (TEA) – $0.04, Dexus Industria REIT (DXI) – $0.041, Dexus Convenience Retail REIT (DXC) – $0.051, Rural Funds (RFF) – $0.029, Arena REIT (ARF) – $0.046, 360 Capital Mortgage (TCF) – $0.05, Charter Hall Social Infrastructure REIT (CQE) – $0.037, Charter Hall Long Wale REIT (CLW) – $0.063, Centuria Office REIT (COF) – $0.025, Centuria Industrial REIT (CIP) – $0.041, Comms Group (CCG) – $0.003, Coventry Group (CCG) – $0.003, Lindsay Australia (LAU) – $0.028

Other ASX corporate actions today: 

• Dividends paid: AMP (AMP), AUB Group (AUB), Atlas Pearls (ATP), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Contact Energy (CEN), Credit Corp Group (CCP), EarlyPay (EPY), Fortescue (FMG), Gold Road Resources (GOR), Iluka Resources (ILU), LaserBond (LBL), McMillan Shakespeare (MMS), Monadelphous Group (MND), Navigator Global Investments (NGI), Origin Energy (ORG), Shriro (SHM), XRF Scientific (XRF)

• Earnings: Deep Yellow (DYL), Iperionx (IPX), Pantoro (PNR)

• Listing: None

• AGMs: None

Economic calendar (AEST):

• 4:45 pm: France Inflation Rate (Sep)

• 10:30 pm: US Core PCE Price Index (Aug)