That's it for another day on the ABC's markets blog.
Thanks for your company. We'll be back bright and early tomorrow for another ripping adventure jam packed with thrills and spills, winners and losers, numbers and percentages. Don't miss it.
Until next time, au revoir.
Prices current at around 4:30pm AEDT
Live updates on major ASX indices:
The ASX 200 fell 0.4% on the first session of the week, with negative news out of China weighing more on sentiment than the positives of another record close on Wall Street.
The fall was primarily driven by the miners, with the basic materials sector being the biggest drag on the market, outweighing gains in real estate, technology and health care.
All the big miners have been hit by what the market has seen as a disappointing financial rescue package in China targeting heavily indebted local governments but avoiding any direct fiscal stimulus to business or households.
Resolute Resources, which resides outside the ASX 200, was the biggest loser, down more than 32.9%, or 22 cents to 44 cents, on news that its CEO and two other executives have been detained in Mali over a dispute with the government there.
The banks were mixed, ranging from NAB up 0.9% to Westpac down 0.1%.
Iron ore junior Champion Iron was the worst performer on the ASX 200, down 9.1%.
A2 Milk fell 6.8% after the big NZ processor Fonterra raised its forecast for farmgate milk prices.
Hotel and liquor retailer, Endeavour Group, dropped 4.9% on a poorly received quarterly earnings update.
Incitec Pivot picked up 0.3% despite announcing it had cut dividends and swung into at $311 million loss from a $560 million dollar profit the year before.
Asset manager HMC Capital was the biggest winner (+4.1%) after announcing it would set up a data centre investment trust, followed by gold miner Genesis Minerals (+4.0%) backed by a positive drilling update.
Oil (-0.5%) and gold (-0.4%) lost ground as the day wore on, while Bitcoin continued to push higher above $US80,000 in the afterglow of the Trump victory.
Across the region, Japan's Nikkei and China's Shanghai index were flat in afternoon trade, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 2.2%.
Looking ahead to Wall Street's opening, S&P 500 futures point to a 0.2% gain, in other words, another record close could be on the cards.
Hi, Kirsten Aiken here, jumping in to give you a first look at an interview running on tonight's program.
Amid reports multinational corporations are already making production decisions based on the tax and tariff policies of incoming US president Donald Trump, I've been speaking to Huw McKay about what big business needs to weigh in the wake of Trump's win.
Dr McKay is a visiting fellow at ANU and until recently a vice-president of market analysis and economics at BHP.
Here is his extended interview ahead of tonight's show.
But wait there's more!
Don't forget to watch the full program tonight on ABC News at 8:44pm, after the late news on ABC TV and anytime on ABC iView.
Just a bit more on the Resolute Mining executives being detained by the Malian junta.
As we reported earlier, the company’s CEO Terry Holohan and two other executives have been detained by government officials in the capital Bamako since a meeting broke up on Friday, November 8.
Resolute said in statement this morning the executives were in Bamako to hold discussions with mining and tax authorities regarding Resolute's "in-country business practices, and to progress open claims made against Resolute, which the company maintains are unsubstantiated".
British born Mr Holohan joined Resolute in 2021, initially as chief operating officer and was promoted to managing director and CEO in May 2022.
He has 30 years' experience working in African mine development and a further 10 years re-engineering precious and base metal mining projects in Asia.
Resolute holds 80% of a subsidiary that owns the north-western mine of Syama, with the Malian state controlling the remaining 20%, according to the firm’s website.
Resolute also owns a gold production site in Mako in neighbouring Senegal, and has other exploration operations in Mali, Senegal and Guinea.
Mali has been under the control of the army since a coup led by Vice President Assimo Goita in May 2021.
The website The Africa Report noted since seizing power, “Mali’s leaders have vowed to ensure a more equitable distribution of mining revenues.”
“Despite being one of the leading gold producers in Africa, the Sahel nation is also one of the poorest countries in the world,” The Africa Report said.
“Mali is embroiled in a political, security and economic crisis, and since 2012 has been battling Al-Qaeda and Islamic State armed groups, as well as a separatist insurgency in the north.
“Gold contributes a quarter of the national budget and three quarters of export earnings.”
The Africa Report said foreign companies, which dominate the mining sector, have recently faced tighter control by the junta.
“Four employees of Canadian mining company Barrick Gold were detained for several days in September before being released.
“Barrick Gold said it has reached an agreement with the state and paid 50 billion CFA Francs ($120 million) in October.
“But the government in late October said Barrick Gold had not honoured its commitments and threatened to pursue the firm,” The Africa Report said.
The Perth-based Resolute said the three employees were being treated well and continued to receive support on the ground from the UK and international embassies and consulates.
Resolute Mining shares were down 34% to 44 cents at 3:10pm AEDT.
The big hotel and liquor chain Endeavour Group is heading to its record low close after disappointing investors in a weak quarterly earnings update.
The company, once Australia's biggest pub owner, has been hit by increased competition, tightening margins and higher costs.
Sales grew by around 0.5% to $3.11 billion in the first quarter (the 14 weeks to October 6), but this was well below market expectations of nearer to 2% growth.
J.P. Morgan analyst Bryan Raymond noted, while the hotel business was holding up well, the retailing side – Dan Murphy's and BWS – was struggling.
"Endeavour is seeing similar trends to Woolworths, with increased promotional intensity and a lower-margin sales mix as customers shopped more selectively resulting in a downgrade to 1H25 retail margins," Mr Raymond wrote in a note to clients.
The company's quarterly update pointed to cost-of-living pressures curbing consumer spending, which further squeezed its top line as the key headwinds it currently faced.
And there is unlikely to be any immediate turn around as the company heads towards the famously liquid Christmas/ New Year period.
"In the near term, softer sales and a lower margin sales mix, resulting from both a higher percentage of sales on promotion and consumer downtrading, are expected to impact retail profitability," MD and CEO Steve Donohue said in a statement to the ASX.
Endeavour shares were down 4.9% to $4.50 at 2:30pm AEDT, their lowest level since being spun out of Woolworths in 2021.
Feel like someone is watching you?
If you're at work, you probably are and it's most likely your boss.
(Editor's note: not so, first warning! we'll talk after your shift).
Anyway, as I was saying before being interrupted, workplace surveillance systems are expanding and becoming more powerful.
Employers say they boost productivity and reduce fraud, but unions argue they are overreaching.
Dan Ziffer has been looking at the practice and has put together this piece - check it out and the video version, well worth the 4 min 30 sec, a terrific piece of TV.
The ASX 200 is down 0.4% heading into the afternoon session with news out China weighing more on sentiment than the positives of another record close on Wall Street.
The fall has been primarily driven by the miners with the basic materials sector being the biggest drag on the market, outweighing gains in real estate, technology and healthcare.
All the big miners have been hit by what the market has seen as a disappointing financial rescue package in China, targeting heavily indebted local governments, but avoiding any direct fiscal stimulus.
Resolute Resources, which resides outside the ASX 200, is the biggest loser so far, down more than 30%, or 20 cents to 46 cents, on news that its CEO and two other executives have been detained in Mali over a dispute with the government there.
The banks have largely been flat, although Westpac (-1.0%) is the only one of the big four to have stumbled significantly.
Iron ore junior, Champion Iron is the worst performer on the ASX 200, down 9.1%.
A2 Milk is down 6.0% after the big NZ processor Fonterra raised its forecast for farmgate milk prices.
Hotel and liquor retailer, Endeavour Group, is down 4.8% on a quarterly earnings update.
Incitec Pivot has made a solid gain (+0.8%) despite announcing it had cut dividends and swung into at $311 million loss from a $560 million dollar profit the year before.
The payments platform Zip (+4.6%) is the biggest gainer, followed by gold miner Genesis Minerals (+4.0%) backed by a positive drilling update.
Prices current at around 1pm AEDT
Live updates on major ASX indices:
Just a quick update on Incitec Pivot's $311 FY loss, dividend cut and the market's relatively cheery response.
Analysts never seem too fussed by the actual net profit or loss result, preferring to zero in on underlying earnings and profits.
Incitec Pivot's case the roughly $710 million post-tax write-down in the value of assets, primarily in the fertiliser business, was pushed to one side and the underlying (excluding one-offs) profit of $400 million beat the analysts' consensus estimate tabulated by Bloomberg by almost 14%.
The expanding EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) margins of the explosive business edged the declining margins in fertilisers.
The final dividend of 6.3 cents per share, while lower than the year before, was still better than the 4-to-5cps the anlysts forecast.
J.P. Morgan's Abhinav Suthakar noted while EBIT and NPAT were below his estimates, "it was a strong result beating consensus estimates."
"While qualitative outlook commentary for FY25 was also robust, this might be offset by the earnings impact of a busy turnaround schedule for the explosives business in FY25 (A$45-55m impact on earnings)," he wrote in a note to clients.
"Gas costs at Phosphate Hill are also expected to step due to higher spot purchases (A$30-90m)."
The upshot was share are up 0.8% bat 12:30pm AEDT and the broker kept a "neutral" rating on the stock.