Live: Oil prices on the rise as energy supply concerns continue
Oil prices continue to climb, with Brent crude approaching $US107 overnight.
The ASX looks set for another positive start to the session, following a mixed finish on Wall Street.
Follow the day's financial news and insights from our specialist business reporters on our live blog.
Disclaimer: this blog is not intended as investment advice.
Pinned
Market snapshot
By Stephanie Chalmers
By Stephanie Chalmers
- ASX SPI 200 futures: +0.1% to 8,812 points
- Australian dollar: flat at 69.58 US cents
- Wall Street: S&P 500 -0.1%, Dow +0.4%, Nasdaq -0.4%
- Europe: Dax +0.8%, FTSE +1%, Eurostoxx50 +0.7%
- Spot gold: -0.5% to $US4,171/ounce
- Oil: Brent futures +1.2% to $US105.94/barrel, WTI futures +1.4% to $U93.10/barrel
- Iron ore: +0.1% to $US90.80/tonne
- Bitcoin: -0.2% to$US82,890
- 10-year bonds: US 5.24%, Australia 5.34%
Prices current at around 8:20am AEDT
Live updates on the major ASX indices:
Filter Posts
All
4
Key Events
2
Market snapshot
1
AI
1
Meta's integrated AI model has bullish analyst excited
By Michael Janda
By Michael Janda
US-based tech analyst Dan Ives, who you might be familiar with from his semi-regular appearances on The Business, is very excited by Meta's release of its latest Muse Wonder AI models.
Mark Zuckerberg says Wonder is a "frontier" AI model, competing with the likes of Claude and Chat GPT.
Ives writes, if it's performance is close to the frontier, then Meta has an enormous advantage over its key rivals.
"Meta's principal advantage is distribution, with ~3.6 billion people a day already live inside its family of apps, so a better model reaches users through the surfaces they already open rather than through a new app and a customer acquisition budget, and every additional surface, from WhatsApp to AI glasses, widens that funnel at little incremental cost," he observes.
"That advantage is already showing up as Muse reached the top of the App Store within two weeks of launch, ahead of ChatGPT, without a marketing push that any standalone AI lab would need to run."
He is also a fan of Meta's integrated business model, utilising its vast social media reach.
"We believe this is the right move for Meta as owning the model, the agent, and the distribution lets the company capture more of the value it creates, and memory and persistence are what turn an agent into a habit," he argues.
"The monetization layer is already forming, with Meta One past 15 million subscriptions and trials and the $20 and $100 Muse tiers in market.
"We continue to view Meta as a core name to own as the AI Revolution moves from models to agents, because a frontier model paired with 3.6 billion daily users is a combination few competitors can match."
Dan Ives is now with merchant bank Yorkville Ives, having left Wedbush Securities.
It must be noted that I struggle to recall a negative note I've read from Ives on the tech sector, so he is very much running with the bulls.
Although, as I am sure he'd point out, running with the bulls has been a very profitable strategy for the past four years!
Key Event
Oil rallies, sending dollar higher on expectations of higher US rates
By Stephanie Chalmers
By Stephanie Chalmers
Oil prices climbed overnight as attacks on Saudi Arabia overshadowed hopes for supply improvements, and expectations for higher US interest rates to fight inflation drove the dollar higher on a narrowly mixed day for global stocks.
The action came after US President Donald Trump hailed fresh Russian diesel exports and a Russia-Ukraine energy ceasefire.
The greenback's rise in recent months has been driven in large part by expectations that high prices for energy and other goods will force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at a time when US growth is stronger than in other rich economies. This could expand the rate differentials that drive currency movements.
While the US bond market was closed for the Columbus Day holiday, investors were cautiously waiting for September inflation data and the third-quarter earnings season, which begins tomorrow with earnings from major US banks.
"There's a lot to be wary of," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management.
"You're walking down a train line and you don't know, because it's dark, if a train is coming and so, you know, you're just being real careful right today."
Besides the wait for earnings and economic data, Pavlik noted that stocks were also "being kept in check because of higher oil" and a lack of direction from the bond market, which tends to influence stocks and other assets.
US Treasury yields hit 24-year highs this month as high energy costs fueled concerns that inflation could stay elevated, keeping policymakers hawkish and pressuring equity valuations.
In currencies, the US dollar held near an 18-month high, supported by safe-haven demand as an escalating Middle East conflict kept investors cautious ahead of the inflation data.
Markets imply only a 19% chance of a rate increase from the Federal Reserve this month, rising to a roughly 71% chance for a hike of 25 basis points in December, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
Investors are also betting on hikes in the EU, Japan and Britain before the end of the year.
Reuters
Key Event
ASX set to open higher
By Alex Turner-Cohen
By Alex Turner-Cohen
Welcome to our live coverage of all things business this morning.
Business reporter Alex Turner-Cohen here to take you through all the day's highs and lows.
To start, the ASX is set to open higher, off the back of Wall St finishing with mixed results but overall remaining steady and hovering near its all-time high.
Meanwhile, escalating conflict in the Middle East has bumped up Australia's petrol prices to levels not seen for six months, surging past $2.40 a litre.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.