27m agoTue 21 Oct 2025 at 8:45pmMarket snapshotASX futures: -0.5% to 9,059 pointsASX 200 (Tuesday close): +0.7% to 9,095 points (close)Australian dollar: -0.4% to 64.9 US cents Wall Street: Dow Jones (+0.5%), S&P 500 (+0.1%), Nasdaq (-0.1%)Europe: FTSE (+0.3%), DAX (+0.3%), Stoxx 600 (+0.2%)Spot gold: -5.7% to $US4,106/ounceSilver: -8% to $US48.29/ounceOil (Brent crude): +0.6% at $US61.39/barrel Iron ore: -0.4% at$US103.50/tonne Bitcoin: +0.7% to $US111,8222

Prices current around 7:45am AEDT

Just nowTue 21 Oct 2025 at 9:12pm

Critical minerals recap and Melbourne’s property market: Alan Kohler’s finance report

In case you need a refresher on what’s happening with shares of Australia’s critical minerals and rare earths companies, I can certainly recommend Alan Kohler’s finance report.

Alan also had an interesting chart how Melbourne is “leading the nation” when it comes to housing affordability (ie. property values going almost nowhere).

“For the past four-and-a-half years, Melbourne house prices have been unchanged, while the national median has gone up about 30%,” he says.

“All we need now is for the rest of the country to follow Melbourne’s lead and for housing to be a bad investment.”

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10m agoTue 21 Oct 2025 at 9:02pm

Critical minerals industry cheers US-Australia deal that will ‘encourage greater investment’

Australia’s critical minerals industry has broadly welcomed the wide-ranging rare earths deal struck between the US and Australia, as analysts say it will strengthen the rare earths supply chain outside of China.

The US and Australia will each invest at least $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) over the next six months to unlock an $US8.5-billion pipeline of critical mineral projects in an attempt to shake China’s global dominance.

The Minerals Council of Australia says the US-Australia Critical Minerals Framework would encourage greater investment in Australian mining and processing.

Analysts at UBS say the “landmark” framework “continues the way for a re-emergent … rare-earths supply chain” outside of China.

However, the investment bank analysts did point out a lack of detail in the announcements, saying “project specifics are so far elusive”.

For more, here’s the story by Yiying Li and Emily Stewart:

17m agoTue 21 Oct 2025 at 8:55pmRex Airlines finds US buyer after entering into voluntary administration

Regional Express has found a buyer after the airline was operating under voluntary administration for more than a year.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, administrators confirmed they had entered into a sale and implementation deed with Air T, an American air services company based in Minneapolis.

The carrier, also known as Rex, was placed into voluntary administration in July 2024, after acquiring $50 million in debt from its largest creditor at the time, PAG.

An update on the sale proceedings will be provided ahead of a second meeting with creditors.

Unfortunately for people who owned shares of Rex before its financial collapse, the administrators at EY say: “No return to shareholders is anticipated”.

For more, here’s the story by Miriah Davis and Claire Simmonds:

25m agoTue 21 Oct 2025 at 8:47pmGold and silver prices fall sharply on profit taking

Shares of Australia’s gold miners will almost certainly fall sharply after the precious metal’s spot price experienced its worst single-day drop  in five years.

Spot gold plunged 5.7% to $US4,106 an ounce (after surging to a record high of around $4,380 over the weekend).

To put things into perspective, that’s a very small drop considering the gold price has surged by around 60% since the year began. So today’s drop is largely due to ‘profit taking’.

That makes it the best year for gold since 1978, when the Iranian Revolution caused oil prices (and inflation) to spike across the world. That led to the gold price doubling in just one year on the back of mass panic-buying.

In contrast, this year’s big concerns have been mainly caused by the Trump administration (with its steep tariffs against most of the world, unpredictable foreign policy, a sharp fall in value of the US dollar and an ongoing US government shutdown), along with expectations there will be further interest rate cuts in America.

It’s also been a bad day for silver (otherwise known as gold’s poorer cousin) with prices down 8% to $US48.29 an ounce.

27m agoTue 21 Oct 2025 at 8:45pmASX to slip from record high after Dow Jones climbs to highest level ever

Good morning and welcome to the ABC’s business and finance blog! I’ll be your guide for the next few hours.

The local share market is on track to open slightly lower, just a day after it hit a fresh record high.

ASX futures are pointing to a 0.5% drop when the trading day begins in a couple of hours.

The Australian dollar, meanwhile, is down 0.4% to 64.9 US cents.

Dow Jones hits record high, Netflix earnings disappoint

It follows a mixed session on Wall Street, which saw the S&P 500 finish practically flat and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.2% as major tech-related stocks like Nvidia, Tesla and Google’s parent company Alphabet slipped.

However, the Dow Jones rose 0.5% to close at a fresh record, just below 47,000 points, after major companies on the index including Coca-Cola, General Motors and 3M reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

After the closing bell Netflix reported a net profit of $US2.55 billion in the September quarter, up from $US2.36b a year ago. However, its share price dropped 7% in after-hours trade as its earnings didn’t meet investors’ high expectations.

The company blamed an ongoing dispute with Brazilian tax authorities its the weaker-than-estimated earnings.

In the meantime, go grab a coffee (or tea … or whatever your drink of choice is).  I’ll have more intel for you in a moment.