Welcome to the end of another week. Let’s start with what HotCopper users have been watching.
What you were watching
Webjet’s recently-spun-out B2B travel arm, WEB Travel Group, rattled feathers this week when it came out of the blue and started blaming Deloitte for a delay to its 1H25 reporting.
But that explanation only came with a voluntary suspension days after it originally issued a trading halt from which mentions of Deloitte were absent.
The trading halt, in turn, said its financial projections needed to be fiddled with, but that it wouldn’t change 2025 outlook. And yet, the company still issued a halt, followed by a voluntary suspension.
Next week should be enlightening.
Sayona Mining
Elsewhere, Sayona Mining dominated views this week as over 60,000 people came to look at the company’s news it’s merging with North Carolina’s Piedmont Lithium.
That deal caused much hubbub, but in lithium land, it’s just another M&A story in a world of depressed battery metal prices. It speaks to investor interest in lithium stocks, but also, the ongoing game of vulture-and-prey hitting lithium miners the world over.
Pancontinental Energy
Third in line was Pancontinental Energy, a hotly watched smallcap energy stock of foremost interest due to it standing in line for a potential transformational deal with Woodside.
Pancontinental has an offshore oil and gas licence in the waters of Namibia overlying the Orange Basin, and in March of 2023, Woodside acquired an option to take a 56% stake in the licence.
Should it be willing to do so, that would obviously be a good windfall for Pancontinental – thus investor interest. But after issuing a trading halt early week regarding an update to do with the licence, which caused obvious excitement, on Friday we learned the update was a non-event – Woodside still have until March next year to make a decision.
Ukraine, US missiles, and Brent Crude
Here’s something I haven’t talked about in a while – Brent Crude futures.
This week we’ve seen the international oil benchmark rise above US$74/bbl on the back of a scary letter signed by Putin earlier this week.
What letter? Well, it’s more of a declaration. Or, it’s just a letter.
Basically, Biden has given Ukraine permission to use US (and UK-made) long range missiles against Russia. Putin has long said this would be enough to start a nuclear war if he felt like it.
Well, Ukraine has started bombing Russia with U.S. and U.K. missiles, and, Putin hasn’t dropped the bomb.
What he did drop was a signature on a revised document floating around inside the Kremlin that basically lines out what Russia will and won’t consider enough of a provocation to press the big red button once and for all.
Once again: It’s kind of just a scary-sounding letter, perhaps like an envelope from a debt collector that goes straight into the trash. (Hopefully not, but, you get what I mean.)
What struck me as interesting was that when news of Putin’s letter hit world headlines, Brent ticked up a little bit – but not much, suggesting the market at large doesn’t really see a nuclear war happening.
Russia’s firing of a blank long-range ballistic missile into Ukrainian territory was enough to push prices to US$74/bbl, however – but we’re still a long way off US$80/bbl.
And now we talk about Trump
Of course, no modern weekly finance wrap could go without mentioning Trump – but it was an appointment he made to his impending Administration that rattled the Australian market in an interesting way.
Shares in blood plasma giant CSL Limited fell this week after Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy to be his health czar – better known as RFK, the Kennedy-lineage-Democrat-cum-conspiracy-theorist turned Republican.
RFK’s appointment also tanked global pharmaceutical shares this week; particularly those that make vaccines.
RFK is probably one of the stranger characters to come from an already absurd America. The man is well known for having had a worm in his brain – definitely unrelated to his propensity for raw food fads – and also once apparently dumped a dead bear in a NYC park. For, you know, a laugh.
Sure, why not.
The man doesn’t believe in vaccines, pesticides, or fluoride in the water. Presumably, if he gets his way, tinned fruit companies could become a lucrative investment down the line, seeing as all of America will be on softs in five years time without fluoride.
CSL, which has a heavy presence in America, suffered in turn.
A lot else happened this week, but this wrap’s long enough.
Take a look at what else I spotted this week below, and, see you next Friday.
HotCopper’s Most Watched
- WebJet finger-pointing at Deloitte causes wave of panic among shareholders
- Sayona Mining’s merger with Piedmont shows lithium interest survives
- Pancontinental’s hotly watched trading halt turns out to be non-event
Australian Equities
- Yet another analyst questions CBA’s mysterious rise through 2024
- CSL hits six month low early week as US RFK appointment shakes nerves
- Resolute under fresh pressure after it confirms US$160M payment to Mali
- ASIC takes NAB to court over ‘ignored’ hardship applications
- Morgan Stanley calls ASX to hit 8,500 – hours after hitting 8,400pts
International Equities
- “Policy rumours” to significantly influence markets in 2025, says one fundie
- Morgan Stanley also call S&P500 to hit 6,500pts in 12 months
- NVIDIA’s latest ‘AI chips’ reportedly overheating
Commodities
- Brent Crude jumps as Ukraine uses US, UK missiles against Russia – but not by much
- Chinese exporters tipped to hike prices after CCP moves to reduce export tax rebates
- Goldman Sachs sees iron ore prices averaging US$95/tn thru 2025 in latest forecast
Geopolitics
- UN climate chief appeals to G20 for green funding at COP29 falls short
- Russia restricts uranium exports to US (duplicating USA’s import ‘ban’); prices rise
- EU boosts sanctions on Iranian seaborne ships carrying military equipment
Regulatory, Odds & Ends
- Trump appoints O&G chief as incoming US energy secretary
- Private Equity firms are hoping to tap US superannuation markets under Trump
- Putin signs scary letter about nuclear war as Ukraine uses US, UK missiles
- US market regulator charges Guatam Adani for bribery scheme
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