Confession time. It always precedes annual reporting season and arrived on cue this week with IGO first to admit to an almighty blooper when it wrote off close to $1 billion, or almost 75%, of what it paid last year for nickel miner Western Areas.

By Tim Treadgold.

Gold is the big winner from the sharp fall reported this week in U.S. inflation and the first clear look at an end to the cycle of rising interest rates.

By Tim Treadgold

China giveth and China taketh away. Perhaps without anyone noticing, that was the theme of the first week of the new financial year with China sparking a rare earths rush before dulling confidence in a broader economic recovery.

By Tim Treadgold.

A boom it wasn’t but the past 12 months of rising interest rates and deepening global uncertainty has done surprisingly little damage to the Australian stock market, which looks like finishing the financial year next week in good shape.

By Tim Treadgold

Lithium discovery and deal news boosted investor confidence this week even as the latest twist in the global interest rate saga added a fresh layer of uncertainty.

By Tim Treadgold.

Interest rate pressure continued to dominate the top end of the stock market this week, along with recession speculation and China’s economic slowdown, but in the lower reaches sentiment was saved by solid exploration and discovery news.

It used to be said that when America sneezed the rest of the world caught a cold, with the only difference today being that it’s China sneezing which is giving everyone else a sore throat.

By Tim Treadgold

It wasn’t easy to find good news this week as New Zealand kicked off what looks to be another round of interest rate increases, but beneath the gloom there was a little glitter, with lithium shining even as most share prices drifted lower.

By Tim Treadgold

Discovery news and hints that the lithium price rebound has only just begun were the positive events in a mixed week which included a warning that the bottom end of the market is under cash pressure which could lead to a consolidation rush.

By Tim Treadgold

A burst of corporate activity which started in the gold sector spilled over into battery metals this week in what looks like a rush to snatch market share ahead of improved economic conditions after interest rates start to fall next year, or later this year.

By Tim Treadgold

Gold loves a crisis, which is why it hit an all-time high this week of US$2085 an ounce before easing, propelled by the rocket fuel of another U.S. interest rate increase and reports of another U.S. bank collapse.

By Tim Treadgold

A whiff of panic blowing off U.S. banks coupled with doubts about China’s recovery dragged most markets down this week, leaving the good news in isolated situations, including takeover speculation in the lithium sector.

By Tim Treadgold

Flashes of encouraging discovery news were not enough to boost the stock market this week as the deadweight of rising costs weighed on investor confidence.

By Tim Treadgold

Gold edged towards an all-time high this week but the bigger news for Australian investors was the surge of interest in rare earth stocks following speculation that China would impose an export ban on the material.

By Tim Treadgold

Gold shone brightly this week as investors digested the implications of an interest rate pause by some central banks, comfortably clearing the US$2000 an ounce mark and getting set for a run to a record US$2300/oz.

Albemarle’s $5.5 billion takeover bid for Liontown Resources and a $560 million expansion by Pilbara Minerals returned lithium to centre-stage this week but there could be more to come with a go ahead for the proposed US$7500 U.S. Government subsidy on electric vehicles.

Australian financial markets were surprisingly resilient this week as the world’s central banks entered the final stage of their confidence-crushing round of interest rate increases which finally killed the ailing Credit Suisse.

With luck, the events of the past few days might not be the start of a new Global Financial Crisis but the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the U.S. and serious problems at Credit Suisse in Europe is a reminder of how fragile financial markets have become as interest rates grind higher.

Gold came to the rescue of the stock market this week as a tax scare was added to the deadweight of rising interest rates hanging around the neck of investor confidence.

Inflation, rising interest rates and the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine combined to drag markets lower this week even as China’s reopening promised to boost demand for Australia’s major commodity exports.