Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
a listener production.
Mining stocks just continue to eat away at the March slump.
And gold stocks have continued to follow gold prices higher.
Good afternoon, I'm Steve Daglian.
I'm Laura Bessarati.
It's Thursday the 7th of May. Welcome to the CommSec Market Update.
Well, it's been another stellar session for the Aussie market at the moment, lifting by close to 1%. That follows a similar improvement yesterday. In fact, yesterday was a little better. We actually had our best day in about a month yesterday, lifting by 1.3%. But today's improvement, second day of gains, and that's taken us to a two-week high.
Yeah, so we're still down roughly 4.5% since the conflict in the Middle East actually started, but certainly a good couple of sessions. We've had strong gains from the US, which hit another record high overnight. Oil prices have gone backwards, which is generally helpful for markets. It was down about 7%, again, boosted by more encouraging signs on the Middle East conflict at the moment.
Yeah, so growing prospects of a peace agreement between the United States and Iran, like you mentioned, and that's really got markets quite optimistic. But also last night, some more strong earnings out of the United States. So we did have that strong lead-in from Wall Street once again.
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Chapter 2: What factors contributed to the ASX climbing to a two-week high?
So they've been tumbling back towards 100 US a barrel, currently sitting just a bit above those levels, and that's really been causing energy stocks to fall back. So yes, you said it's helpful for the market more broadly, but not certainly for energy stocks, which are falling by roughly 3% and down heavily for a second straight day.
Yeah, and Trump was quoted last night saying that Iran wants to make a deal, that they've had very good talks over the last 24 hours, that it's very possible that they'll make a deal as well. So we'll see how long this lasts. But certainly any signs that they're heading in the right direction is likely to be received well by markets.
And you're right to point out that that's probably most helpful for our market. But as far as the US is concerned, it's largely those US earnings which have been flowing through from the likes of chip makers like AMD, Supermicro, also Uber. All of these stocks came out with solid earnings last night. And economic data was largely positive as well on the jobs front.
If we look at our market today, certainly energy stocks are under quite a bit of pressure because of the oil price decline, as you rightfully pointed out. But we are seeing some losses elsewhere. Healthcare stocks, utilities, telcos, they're all down. The rest of the market is actually lifting. And it's certainly the mining sector that is standing out most. It's up about 3.7%.
Now, we've got to remember that back in March, when news of the conflict broke, essentially, and there were concerns peaking as far as the conflict goes, the materials were down 14% in one month. They've bounced back strongly in April with a lift of more than 4%. And now they're improving by a little more than 7% so far in May.
Yeah. And today's improvement looks like they're on track for their best day in about a month for that sector. So certainly helpful. And financials lifting by 0.4%. Remember they had a really good day yesterday and still just extending those improvements. Not quite as good as yesterday, but still an improvement nonetheless, which is helpful.
Let's look at some stocks on the market today, though. I mean, super retail has been one of the big movers. It was down as much as 13.5% at one stage this morning. Now it's down by about 3.5%. So it's quite a comeback from those lows.
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Chapter 3: How did US market performance influence the Australian market today?
Now, it delivered a trading update after the market closed yesterday, essentially saying that it's had some growth across super cheap auto, Rebel, and MacPak brands that it operates, but sales of BCF went backwards, though. Now, it joined the likes of other retailers recently that have warn somewhat of the Middle East conflict and the impact this is having on cost. JB Hi-Fi was one recently.
Footwear retailer Accent was another. So Super Retail today is saying that sales momentum across all brands has been adversely affected by the onset of that conflict, together with concerns around fuel availability as well. So all of this is weighing on things like consumer sentiment, particularly around the Easter break.
And it also said that trading conditions in the auto category moderated in March and April, the impact most evident in spending on stuff like power tools, which it's considering, I guess, to be more of a discretionary item, demand for fuel-related maintenance products that have been a bit more robust as expected.
Shares of betting company Tabcorp have had a very rough session today, slumping by 26% at one stage before recovering slightly. They're currently down by around 23% at the moment, so still a huge decline. Now, The plunge comes after the regulator flagged major concerns with how it manages its anti-money laundering controls.
Now, its chairman said Tabcorp takes its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations very seriously, and the board and executive are fully committed to collaborating with AUSTRAC, which is the regulator, but still that big hit to its share price today.
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Chapter 4: What impact did the potential US-Iran peace deal have on oil prices?
Lice and Wanda, another underperformer today. It's down by about 8%. It provides gambling products and services like poker and also card shuffling machines.
So it forecasts delivering mid to high single digit earnings growth in 2026, including certain external factors it has little control over, like US tariffs, changes in tax rates over in the UK, which it reckons is probably going to be roughly a $40 million headwind for the group.
I mentioned that Aussie gold miners have been following gold prices higher right at the outset, and this is, of course, on the prospect of US-Iran agreements. Now, we saw the gold subsector drop by 24% over the course of March, which was when our market was most impacted by the conflict.
Now, it did track a 12% drop in gold prices over the month of March as well, but we have seen them slowly clawing back losses with the gold subindex up four and a half percent today, and it's improved by something like six percent over the month so far.
ARN Media today has been all over the place. It was down about four percent about half an hour ago. Now it's actually up by close to two percent. This is the group behind KISS and Golden Radio Networks. So it revealed today that the Carl and Jackie O shows axing this year has cost at least $26 million in lost advertising revenue. due to what it calls brand safety issues.
And at the AGM today, about 90% of shareholders voted against its executive pay report. So basically, this means a CEO's more than $1 million salary will now be under review.
Among the top performers today has been Orica. This is a company that provides... explosives and blasting services for the mining industry. Now, this is after it narrowed its half-year losses from $89 million in the first half of 2025 to a loss of $600,000 this half. So it also upped its dividend from the same time last year, up 14% to $0.285 per share.
saying the results were supported by strong demand for its higher-end products and technology, as well as a solid gold and copper markets and disciplined cost management as well. So, Orica shares up in the order of 8% today.
As we approach the close, most of the banks are improving today. Westpac is one of them. It's up around 1%. ANZ is up around three quarters of a percent. We've had quite a few of them actually releasing their results this week.
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