Over the weekend the White House issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier this week by President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s largest economies. Under the deal, China will issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of U.S. end users and their suppliers around the world,” the White House said, meaning the effective removal of controls China imposed in April 2025 and October 2022.
- The announcement should further allay trade US-Chian trade fears but it’s likely to continue to weigh on the volatile rare earth names.
The local index signed off October up 0.41% but under the hood the month lived up to its volatile reputation with 15 stocks moving up or down by over 15%, with the average move across the group more than 20%. With rate cuts largely off the table and many hot trades of 2025 under pressure, including the “Certainty Trade” its hard to see what’s going to push the index higher unless the materials sector can continue to forge higher. One thing that has been consistent over recent months is the performance baton being passed around within the resources leading to dramatic moves in both directions. At the moment lithium and uranium stocks are hot, coal and iron are strong, gold is basing and rare earths have cooled.
- The SPI Futures are calling the ASX200 to open slightly lower this morning with no major leads from overseas indices.
