ASX finishes the week up 0.28%: gold miners lead, energy falls on the oil rout
ASX 200 week close: 8,828.7 (+0.28%) S&P 500 (Thursday 18 Jun close): 7,500.6 (+0.93% on the week) Sentiment: mixed
The week on the ASX
The S&P/ASX 200 closed the week at 8,828.7, up 0.28% (about 25 points) across the five sessions. The flat result covered a wide gap between sectors. Gold producers and a few tech names lifted the index through midweek, then Friday took most of it back: the ASX 200 fell 0.92% on Friday after the US Federal Reserve delivered a hawkish hold, which pushed the US dollar up and commodity prices down. The All Ordinaries finished the week up 0.46% at 9,047.3. Buyers moved into gold miners and sold oil, gas and coal stocks. The ASX 200 volatility gauge eased to 11.7 (down 9.8% on the week), so the selling stayed in commodities rather than spreading into a broad risk-off move.
Sector scorecard (5-day)
- Best: gold miners, a median near +12% across the mid-tier producers. Catalyst Metals (CYL.AU) rose 25.3%, Vault Minerals (VAU.AU) 19.7% and Regis Resources (RRL.AU) 18.6%.
- Worst: energy, a median near -9% across oil, gas and coal as crude fell.
- Lithium and base metals also dropped: Pilbara Minerals (PLS.AU) -9.8%, Liontown Resources (LTR.AU) -9.2%, IGO (IGO.AU) -7.8%.
- Best outside gold: Weebit Nano (WBT.AU) +35.5% and Cochlear (COH.AU) +13.9%.
- Dispersion, gold-miner median minus energy median: about 21 points, wide for a week when the index moved 0.28%.
Top movers, week ending 19 June
| Ticker | Week | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| WBT.AU | +35.5% | ReRAM commercialisation: Tier-1 licensing to Texas Instruments and onsemi, plus customer chip tape-outs |
| SRL.AU | +28.3% | Scandium and defence demand; Lockheed Martin holds an offtake option over Sunrise scandium |
| CYL.AU | +25.3% | WA gold producer; K2 fourth mine due to pour first ore by 30 June as the sector re-rated |
| PYC.AU | +24.6% | Clinical-stage RNA biotech; no ASX announcement, so the move looks flow-driven |
| 4DX.AU | +23.4% | Lung-imaging contract momentum after the GSK imaging deal |
| KAR.AU | -29.1% | Cut 2026 output guidance about 12% after a riser failure at the Who Dat manifold in the US Gulf of Mexico |
| IPX.AU | -14.8% | Titanium developer; profit-taking after a strong run as the US dollar firmed |
| AAI.AU | -14.1% | Alcoa CDI tracks its NYSE-listed parent; aluminium and alumina prices fell |
| BPT.AU | -10.2% | Oil rout (WTI -9.8%); also selling 60% of its Otway VIC/L35 operated stake |
| PLS.AU | -9.8% | Lithium prices soft, with the broad commodity sell-off adding to it |
Wall Street: a hawkish Fed and a Juneteenth holiday
US markets closed Friday for the Juneteenth holiday, so the US week ended on Thursday. The S&P 500 finished at 7,500.6, up 0.93% on the week, the Nasdaq Composite at 26,517.9 (+2.4%) and the Dow at 51,564.7 (+0.7%). Thursday alone added 1.9% for the Nasdaq as tech bought back the post-Fed dip. The FOMC set the tone on 17 June: in Kevin Warsh's first meeting as chair, the Fed held its policy rate at 3.5% to 3.75% and rewrote its projections, dropping the 2026 rate cut it had shown in March and lifting the median end-2026 rate to 3.8%. Nine of eighteen officials now expect at least one hike this year. The US VIX eased to 16.8. The hawkish turn lifted the US dollar, and AUD/USD fell to about US$0.702 (down 0.5% on the week). A softer Australian dollar raises the local-currency revenue of ASX miners and USD earners, which offsets part of the commodity-price drop.
Macro themes that played out
The stronger US dollar drove the week. A firmer greenback lowers US-dollar commodity prices, and that showed across the ASX: crude dropped, with WTI down 9.8% to about US$76.5 and Brent down 7.7% to about US$80.6, taking the rest of the energy complex and the coal names with it. Gold spot fell 1% to about US$4,173, yet gold equities rose double digits. Corporate action explains that gap more than the metal does. Regis Resources agreed an all-scrip merger with Vault Minerals on 4 May, an A$10.7 billion deal that would build the ASX's third-largest gold producer at more than 700,000 ounces a year, and that re-rated the mid-tier gold space. S&P Dow Jones Indices runs its June quarterly rebalance on Monday 22 June, adding gold names Kingsgate Consolidated (KCN.AU) and Minerals 260 (MI6.AU) to the ASX 200 alongside Elevra Lithium, Electro Optic Systems (EOS.AU) and FireFly Metals. Outside resources, Web Travel Group (WEB.AU) rose after its FY26 result, with WebBeds total transaction value of A$5.8 billion, up 20%, and IDP Education (IEL.AU) gained about 20% after its earlier visa-driven fall.
Week ahead, Mon to Fri (AEST)
- Mon 22 Jun: the S&P/ASX June quarterly index rebalance takes effect. Kingsgate (KCN.AU), Minerals 260 (MI6.AU), Elevra Lithium, Electro Optic Systems (EOS.AU) and FireFly Metals enter the ASX 200, and index funds adjust their weights.
- Tue 23 Jun: no major domestic data. Local trade absorbs the rebalance and the firmer US dollar. The RBA does not meet this week.
- Wed 24 Jun: Australia's May monthly CPI indicator (ABS, 11:30am AEST), the main domestic release, with the cash rate at 4.35% after May's hike.
- Thu 25 Jun: US final Q1 GDP and durable goods orders land overnight, with weekly jobless claims.
- Fri 26 Jun: the US May PCE price index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge (released 25 June US time), reaches local screens as the first major inflation read after the FOMC. Quarter-end and month-end flows also feature.
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