Steve Daghlian

We are about three weeks out now from the next Reserve Bank board meeting and markets at the moment are signalling that a rate hike is certainly a real possibility.

We do get an update on jobs Thursday and then inflation at the end of the month as well.

Exactly.

So just days out from the next RBA meeting.

So there's certainly two big things to watch from here.

Let's look at stocks because the big contributor to the gains in the mining sector, even though many of the big names are up, is BHP.

It's up 3.2% while Rio and Fortescue are up

around half that.

Now, this is following a Bloomberg report that Chinese officials are allowing a number of steel mills to buy some BHP iron ore cargos.

This is following a month's long dispute.

And that could mean that physical deliveries from Chinese ports could follow after as well.

And this follows a visit to China by the incoming chief executive, Brandon Craig.

As I said, the other miners are also up, but certainly BHP is leading the way today.

Yeah.

So if Qantas' worst case scenario ends up coming to life, that's paying as much as $3.3 billion for jet fuel for the year.

That's as much as $800 million more than what it guided to just ahead of the conflict.

And that was in late February.

And of course, fuel is one of the biggest expenses for any airline.

We've also heard from Westpac on that note too, which came out with an update today.

Certainly the hardest hit of the banks today, 2.6% lower.