That's it for another day on the blog, thanks your company.

It was a day that started off with hopes of a record close on the ASX 200 but fell a bit short.

However, there was plenty of action elsewhere.

Gold, when last checked, had gained 1% to be at a new record of $US3,930/ounce, which along with Bitcoin — at $US124,000 is just under its record high hit over the weekend — have plenty of investors who are continuing to plough into them.

SwissQuote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya, in her pre-US opening note, puts it down to mounting political tensions and uncertainty through major economies.

"The dollar faces headwinds from trade tensions, political uncertainty and debt concerns, Ms Ozkardeskaya wrote. 

"Sterling remains hard to love amid fiscal and political risks ahead of the Autumn Budget. 

"The yen, once a safe haven, is grappling with its own debt and political challenges, and the euro, while relatively stronger, remains clouded by French political turmoil, as the new government faces early no-confidence risks." 

"As a result, assets without government ties — like gold and Bitcoin — are seeing renewed inflows."

The biggest action today was in Japan where the ruling LDP chose Sanae Takaichi as its next leader and by extension the next PM — she is well known for her preference for easy fiscal and monetary policies.

"It was, in short, a great start to the week for Japanese equities (+5%) — and much less so for Japanese bonds," Ms Ozkardeskaya said.

Looking ahead, Wall Street is looking like hitting new highs tonight — futures trading points to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq gaining 0.3% and 0.4% respectively.

The blog will be back early tomorrow to guide you through another day of markets, finance and business news.

Until next time, missing you already ...

The ASX 200 opened promisingly enough with a fresh record close in its sights, but from then on it lost momentum.

It closed down 0.1% at 8,981 points, while the All Ords (despite what you may read on our ASX Quotes page) also slipped 0.1% to 9,280 points.

The materials and relatively small utilities sectors led the way, while healthcare, discretionary retail and technology stocks were less in favour.

Financials stocks were mixed with the banks being dumped (CBA and ANZ both down 0.6%), while the insurers were in demand (QBE +1.4%).

While the materials sector was generally stronger, the mega miners BHP (-0.4%) and Rio Tinto (-1.2%) were weaker.

Gold miners continued to be in demand as the spot price for the metal pushed through $US3,900/ounce to a new record high.

Rare earth miners and explorers also enjoyed a terrific day on bullish commentary out of the US with Lynas up 7.2% and the NT-focussed Arafura Rare Earths up 11.6%.

However, uranium miners were sold off after a solid recent run with Deep Yellow deeply in the red (-3.7%).

Retailers spluttered along - Coles gained 0.5%, while Woolworths (-0.6%) and Harvey Norman (-2.6%) were out of favour.

DroneShield (+10.7%) returned to its recent camping site on the ASX top mover list on the ASX 200 followed by an array of rare earth, lithium and gold miners.

Stem cell focussed biotech Mesoblast was the worst performer on the ASX 200 down more than 6% today.

• ASX 200: -0.1% at 8,981 points
• Australian dollar: flat at 66.03 US cents
• Asia: Nikkei +4.6%, Hang Seng -0.6%, Shanghai closed
• Wall Street (Friday): S&P500 flat, Dow +0.5%, Nasdaq -0.4%
• Europe (Friday): Dax -0.2%, FTSE +0.7%, Eurostoxx +0.2%
• Spot gold: +1.4% at $US3,939/ounce
• Brent crude: +1.6% to $US 65.54/barrel
• Iron ore (Friday): -0.1% at $US103.70/tonne
• Bitcoin: +0.7% at $US123,654

Prices current at around 4:15pm AEDT

Live updates on the major ASX indices:

Junior gold explorer Predictive Discovery has seen its shares jump 15% after the ASX waved through its merger plans with Toronto-listed Robex Resources.

Predictive, which is focussed on exploration in the West African nation of Guinea, announced a merger of equals with Robex Resources and will acquire all shares of the Canada-based company.

Predictive asked the ASX for a waiver from having to seek shareholder approval for the deal, which was duly granted.

The merged company plans to have a dual listing on both the ASX and the Toronto exchange.

Predictive's share price has more than doubled this year and is currently trading at 50 cents/share.

Hmmm, well spotted Geoff, not sure what's happening there.

At 3:00pm AEDT on my Reuters screen, the All Ords was down 0.2% to 9,271 points.

Unlike a lot of figures on this blog that are manually typed out (and prone to dare I say operator error), the ones on the ASX Quotes page/link are automatically generated and constantly updated.

Might have to upwardly refer that one.

Got to say though, if the All Ords had plummeted to 1,000 points today, it would have made for a livelier blog.

The ASX Quotes graphic appears to be working though.

Two mine disasters on opposite sides of the world have driven copper prices to 16-month highs.

The big US-owned miner Freeport-McMoRan has confirmed all seven workers who had been missing following a mud flow disaster at the Grasberg copper and gold mine in Indonesia have been confirmed as dead.

About 800,000 metric tons of mud flooded the mine on September 8, trapping the seven miners and closing the mine for the past month.

As the world's second-largest copper mine, Grasberg accounts for 3% of global concentrate production.

In late July, a collapse in the El Teniente mine, owned by Chile's state-controlled copper giant Codelco, killed another seven underground workers.

El Teniente is one of the world's biggest underground copper mines with a capacity to produce about 275,000 tonnes of concentrate annually.

The Chilean disaster had already caused a supply squeeze price rise in the market. The Indonesian disaster has amplified it.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.7% at $10,792 per metric ton, hitting its highest level since May 2024.

Analysts estimate the disruption could result in a loss of 591,000 tons of copper output between September 2025 and the end of 2026, prompting Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Bank of America to raise their price forecasts.

"Bullish momentum in copper continued, with prices spiking to $10,700/t. Investors remained concerned around supply challenges in Chile and Indonesia," ANZ said in a note.

"Mine supply challenges, along with China's anti-innovation drive, are impacting refined copper production growth."

The supply squeeze has seen a surge in interest in ASX-listed copper plays today, including Sandfire Resources (+3.7%), Capstone Copper (+2.5%) and Aeris Resources (+9.4%).

A modest increase in the OPEC+ cartel's November production target has seen oil prices push higher after last week's almost 8% retreat.

At 1:40pm AEDT, the global benchmark Brent Crude had gained 1.4% to $US65.46/barrel, while the US standard, West Texas Intermediate Crude was up 1.5%.

"The price jump has primarily been boosted by OPEC+'s decision for a lower-than-expected production hike next month as the group intended to buffer the recent slump in oil markets," independent market analyst Tina Teng said.

"However, crude prices will likely remain weak due to the gloomy global economic outlook," she added.

On Sunday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries plus Russia and some smaller producers (OPEC+) confirmed it would raise production from November by 137,000 barrels per day (bpd), the same modest monthly increase as in October, amid persistent concerns over a looming supply glut.

In the run-up to the meeting, sources said Russia was advocating for an output increase of 137,000 bpd to avoid pressuring prices, but Saudi Arabia would have preferred double, triple or even quadruple that figure to regain market share more quickly.

"OPEC+'s decision to increase production by another 137,000 bpd in November could be manageable in light of rising supply disruptions due to tightening sanctions by the U.S. and Europe against Russia and Iran," ANZ analysts said in a note on Monday.

"Meanwhile, Ukraine continued to intensify its attacks on Russian energy facilities, targeting the Kirishi refinery, one of Russia's largest refineries, with an annual processing capacity exceeding 20 million tonnes," the analysts added.

With Reuters

Time to check in on the blue chips on the ASX top 20.

It's a fairly lacklustre day with only seven making gains and thirteen losing ground.

QBE is the best performer (+1.4%) while Woodside (1.1%) is benefiting from a slightly higher oil price after the OPEC+ made only a modest increase to its November production target.

Westpac (+0.1%) is the only big bank making gains, while Fortescue (+0.7%) is the best of the mega-miners.

Aristocrat Leisure (-1.6%) is struggling today. 

CSL's recent rally has been stopped in its tracks (-1.3%) while all the big retailer — Coles (-0.1%), Wesfarmers (-0.3%) and Woolworths (-0.9%) — have been sold off.

• ASX 200: flat at 8,983 points
• Australian dollar: flat at 66.02 US cents
• Asia: Nikkei +4.1%, Hang Seng -0.5%, Shanghai closed
• Wall Street (Friday): S&P500 flat, Dow +0.5%, Nasdaq -0.4%
• Europe (Friday): Dax -0.2%, FTSE +0.7%, Eurostoxx +0.2%
• Spot gold: +0.6% at $US3,909/ounce
• Brent crude: +1.4% to $US 65.44/barrel
• Iron ore (Friday): -0.1% at $US103.70/tonne
• Bitcoin: +0.9% at $US123,883

Prices current at around 12:50pm AEDT

Live updates on the major ASX indices:

  With all the records falling this morning, the blog is feeling a bit like covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics (the record holder for the most world records broken at a summer Olympics*).

Spot gold nailed another PB this morning, hitting $US3,919/ounce before sitting back to take a breather and is currently just above $3,900/ounce (11:50am AEDT).

* There were 30 world records established at Beijing, 28 at London (2012), while there were just 17 last time around at Paris (2024).