Miners gave up some of their gains during lunchtime, but were still higher as gold prices continued to rise, with traders looking beyond tensions in Venezuela towards economic data in the US this week.
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Bullion was near $US4490 an ounce, having risen more than 4 per cent over the previous three sessions. After the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, the White House said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump wouldn’t rule out military force to acquire Greenland. China, meanwhile, imposed controls on exports to Japan, intensifying a dispute between Asia’s top economies.
Gold miners Evolution Mining and Newmont were up 0.9 per cent and 3.7 per cent, respectively, while Northern Star walked back its morning gains to trade down 0.9 per cent. Silver producer South32 added 1.2 per cent after silver prices surged as much as 6.3 per cent overnight.
Copper heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto were up 0.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent after copper prices surpassed $US13,350 a tonne for the first time earlier this week. Demand for the metal is booming as investments in renewable energy, electric vehicles and AI data centres soar.
Banks were largely anaemic as investors continued to shift out of the sector amid concerns about its profit growth prospects. The big four banks were all in the red, with the Commonwealth Bank – Australia’s biggest stock – down 0.1 per cent, while Westpac and ANZ Bank each slipped 0.9 per cent and National Australia Bank dropped 0.8 per cent.
BlueScope Steel was down 0.6 per cent after it soared 20.6 per cent on Tuesday, as investors look to the next developments in the joint takeover bid by billionaire Kerry Stokes’ industrial and media group SGH Ltd and US steelmaker Steel Dynamics.
Oil prices remained muted overnight.Credit: Rob Homer
But it was the oil and gas giants who were the biggest losers in Wednesday’s session. Woodside dropped 2.6 per cent, Santos lost 3 per cent and Ampol, the nation’s biggest refiner, fell 1.6 per cent. The declines came after oil prices held their losses overnight as traders weighed the outlook for an end to the war in Ukraine following progress on security guarantees. West Texas Intermediate traded near $US57 a barrel, after closing 2 per cent lower on Tuesday. Brent settled below $US61.
On Wall Street overnight, US stocks continued their gains in the first full trading week of the year, led by advances in materials, industrials and financials as a market rotation into laggards gathered pace and catapulted the market towards a fresh all-time high.
The S&P 500 Index climbed 0.6 per cent to a fresh record. The Nasdaq 100 Index gained 0.7 per cent, while the old-economy Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1 per cent, closing above the 49,000 milestone for the first time.
“If there is a singular theme, it is rotation,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at Jones Trading Institutional Services. “Overall, people want to be invested in this market, but they are looking to other industry groups that represent relative value in comparison to last year’s leaders and highfliers.”
However, big tech companies were still making some of the most notable moves. The gains mirrored much of the action from 2025, when the tech giants often drove the market to a series of records.
Amazon, which reaches into both retail and technology, surged 3.4 per cent. It is one of the most valuable companies in the world and its outsized stock valuation helped counter losses elsewhere in the market, including a 1.8 per cent loss from Apple.
Micron Technology rallied 10 per cent, also helping to lift the market.
Nvidia, often the biggest force behind the market’s direction, wavered throughout the day and closed down 0.5 per cent.
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Digital storage device maker Sandisk surged 27.6 per cent for the US market’s biggest gain. The stock’s value has jumped more than 800 per cent since spinning off from Western Digital last February. The gains have been driven by artificial intelligence and the resulting demand for data-storage hardware.
Technology companies, especially those focused on artificial intelligence, are being closely watched this week during the CES trade show.
AI advances helped propel the broader market to a series of records in 2025. Investors will be watching companies for any updates that could shed more light on the big corporate investments in AI technology.
Treasury yields rose in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.18 per cent from 4.15 per cent late on Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which moves more closely with expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do, rose to 3.48 per cent from 3.45 per cent late on Monday.
Outside of company announcements, Wall Street is preparing for several updates on the US labour market this week, along with reports on the services sector and consumer sentiment. They will help paint a clearer picture of how vital parts of the world’s largest economy closed out 2025 and the direction they could take in 2026. The reports will be watched by the Federal Reserve as it determines interest rate policy.
The central bank’s biggest focus will be on reports on the US job market over the coming days, which include updates for job openings and overall employment. The Fed has been weighing a slowing job market against risks for rising inflation as it decides whether to cut interest rates. It cut its benchmark rate three times late in 2025, but inflation has remained above its 2 per cent target and that has made the Fed more cautious.
Wall Street expects the Fed to hold interest rates steady at its January meeting.
With AP and Bloomberg
