Wall Street has gone on a tear in the last 24 hours after an encouraging update on U.S. inflation, and Australia is expected to follow suit: ASX 200 futures are tipping a 1.26% gain on Thursday morning for a 104-point leap.

The Nasdaq composite – which has just suffered five down days in a row – bumped 2.2% higher on the economic report, while the Dow Jones added 1.6%.

The inflation numbers were relatively simple; overall inflation accelerated to 2.9%.

It’s what’s sitting further under the hood that U.S. markets – and seemingly our Aussie investors too – liked: With food and energy removed, underlying inflation trends actually slowed in December. Not many had predicted quite a slowdown, and some have bullishly started suggesting rate cuts are back on the bill.

One last big economic report should drive markets Down Under too, with December’s labour force data (out at 11.30AM) tipped to boast positive trends as well.

Also in Aussie news, Southern Cross Gold (once called Mawson Gold before a late 2024 name swap) is the first new company to join the ASX in 2025. The Canadian-owned miner got its last-minute approvals from the Supreme Court of New South Wales on Tuesday and is expected to ring the bell at 3PM in Sydney today.

It will list under SXG and is looking to issue as many as 125,041,031 shares.

Just today Bell Potter’s director of sales, Richard Coppleson, lamented how few IPOs fired throughout 2024. “We desperately need more,” he said.

Elsewhere, Meridian Energy (ASX:MEZ) warned shareholders “mixed weather conditions” across New Zealand would soon weigh on electricity demand; this past quarter though the company logged a rise in retail sales volumes.

Marmota (ASX:MEU) has started drilling 89 holes across its Muckanippie Heavy Metals Titanium discovery that just yielded “bonanza” discoveries in every hole.

Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) will also share its latest operations update today.

Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 62.2 US cents.

To commodities, which are in the greenback,

Iron Ore lifted 0.4% to $100.75 a tonne in Singapore,

Brent Crude is trading at $82.42,

Gold is trading at $2,702 per ounce, and, 

US natgas futures bounced 4% to sell at $4.13 per gigajoule.

That’s Market Open, I’m Isaac McIntyre, stick with us for HotCopper’s Market Update.