Good morning everyone and welcome to Rise and Shine on Thursday, August 27, 2026. Here’s what you should know before the ASX opens today…
At 7am Sydney time on Thursday, ASX 200 futures were down 0.1%, so we’re looking at a slightly soggy start rather than anything requiring helmets.
Here’s what went down overnight.
Wall Street does bugger all, inflation refuses to leave
US stocks finished almost flat, with the healthcare among the weaker sectors.
| STOCK INDICES | Value | Change |
| ASX 200 | 9,128 | -0.40% |
| S&P 500 | 7,676 | -0.02% |
| Dow Jones | 53,464 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq Comp | 26,130 | -0.08% |
| Russell 2000 | 3,006 | -0.14% |
| Euro Stoxx 50 | 6,471 | 0.23% |
| UK FTSE | 10,878 | -0.07% |
| German DAX | 26,286 | 0.08% |
| French CAC | 8,462 | 0.27% |
Core PCE, the Fed’s favourite inflation measure once you strip out food and energy, rose 0.2% in July and 3.3% over the year, pretty much bang on expectations.
But before anyone starts getting the rate cut confetti ready, the broader PCE gauge is still running at 3.7% annually, way above the Fed’s 2% target.
Attention now turns to Jackson Hole on Friday, where Fed chair Kevin Warsh gets to explain what the hell the Fed does with inflation that’s cooling, but still nowhere near cool enough.
In stocks news, Meta rose after agreeing to cough up as much as US$18 billion to settle a stack of social media claims brought by US states.
Normally, seeing US$18 billion settlement in a headline would have shareholders choking on their coffee.
But Meta had already said previously that losing the case could potentially leave it staring at penalties of up to US$1.4 trillion.
So yeah, US$18 billion is still an absolutely filthy amount of money, but next to US$1.4 trillion it somehow feels like Meta haggled the robber down.
Elsewhere, Apple has locked in September 9 for its big annual product bash, with its first foldable iPhone expected alongside the iPhone 18 Pro range.
Calling a foldable phone some huge innovation in 2026 is probably stretching it, considering Samsung and others have been folding their things for years.
Meanwhile, gold and Bitcoin are having a rare little cuddle.
ETFs tracking the two pulled in a record US$7 billion over five trading days, including roughly US$3.4 billion into SPDR Gold Shares and US$1.5 billion into BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF.
For years, markets have argued over whether Bitcoin really is digital gold.
Punters apparently got sick of arguing and went, stuff it, we’ll just buy both.
And there’s actually some logic behind the madness.
Investors are getting increasingly twitchy about US debt, the dollar and long term Treasury yields, so both trades are basically feeding off the same fear.
Nvidia delivers another monster
Quarterly revenue hit a record US$96.2 billion and Nvidia guided to US$108 billion for Q3.
And the stock still fell about 2% after hours.
Operationally though, the quarter was another belter.
Data Center revenue jumped 117% as Blackwell Ultra ramped up, while the next generation, Vera Rubin, is already moving into full production.
And Jensen Huang certainly isn’t talking like the AI party is running out of booze.
“AI has reached its inflection point. It’s doing useful work. Its tokens are productive and profitable. Now, compute is revenue.”
There was another number buried in the results that deserves a proper peek.
Nvidia’s future supply commitments have gone absolutely bananas, jumping from US$119 billion to US$279 billion in just one quarter – largely because it’s getting ahead of the queue for memory before the whole AI mob piles in.
Which brings us to margins, because eventually someone has to ask what all this gear is costing.
Adjusted gross margin landed at 75% in Q2, but Nvidia guided to roughly 74%, plus or minus 50 basis points, for Q3.
One percentage point sounds like bugger all until you’re Nvidia.
What’s on today
Reporting season rolls on, because the ASX hasn’t thrown enough numbers at us this week already.
Qantas and Air New Zealand will tell us how the flying business is travelling, while Wesfarmers and Beacon Lighting give us another peek at whether Aussie consumers are still spending.
Mineral Resources, South32 and Karoon Energy bring the resources end of town into the action.
Magellan, Perpetual, Centuria Capital and Cromwell Property front up from the money and property department.
Ramsay Health Care, Sigma Healthcare, Bapcor, Atlas Arteria and Web Travel are also reporting.
And, because no reporting season would feel quite complete without some potential drama, Star Entertainment is on the card too.
Commodity/forex/crypto market prices
| Price (US) | Move | |
| Gold / ounce | $4,592.35 | -1.41% |
| Silver / ounce | $68.01 | -0.86% |
| Iron ore / tonne | $95.58 | 0.19% |
| Nickel / tonne | $16,920 | -0.76% |
| Copper / tonne | $13,180 | -1.78% |
| Zinc / tonne | $3,885 | -0.07% |
| Lithium carbonate 99.5% Min China Spot / tonne | $23,299 | -2.18% |
| Uranium / pound | $89.55 | 0.00% |
| Oil (WTI) / barrel | $81.73 | -0.77% |
| Oil (Brent) / barrel | $87.31 | -1.44% |
| AUD/USD | $0.7174 | 0.11% |
| Bitcoin | $78,419 | -0.21% |
What got you talking
Also in the news…
Health Check: Genetic Signatures (ASX:GSS) and Microba Life Sciences (ASX:MAP) talk merger as BCAL Diagnostics (ASX:BDX) crashes the romance.
Biocurious: Calmer Co (ASX:CCO) aims to kava-out a niche in sober-curious US.
Q&A: Ausgold’s (ASX:AUC) John Dorward on why it pays not to believe the ‘folklore’ on gold projects.
Australia’s AI surveillance debate puts icetana (ASX:ICE) in the frame.
Predator and Prey: Could Breakthrough Minerals (ASX:BTM) be Queensland’s next copper takeover target?
Sunrise 2027: Why QR codes are set to raise the bar for retail.
Resources Top 5: Best gold hit yet sends Metal Hawk (ASX:MHK) flying high; Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) spikes on high-grade niobium.
Trading Halts
Alliance Aviation Services (ASX:AQZ) – cap raise
Black Bear Minerals (ASX:BKB) – cap raise
Broken Hill Mines (ASX:BHM) – cap raise
Castle Minerals (ASX:CDT) – cap raise
Falcon Metals (ASX:FAL) – cap raise
At Stockhead, we tell it as it is. While Calmer Co, Ausgold, icetana and Breakthrough Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
