The ASX 200 is expected to follow up its bloody Thursday nosedive with another drop; futures are tipping the Aussie bourse to open -0.6% lower today.

The downward spiral heading into the weekend before Christmas follows a brutal trading day yesterday where investors wiped nearly $50 billion off the markets – a panic selloff sparked by a hawkish Federal Reserve position in the U.S.

Those sentiments have mostly held on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dropped; both indexes lost around 0.1% in what eventually ended as a flat day.

The Dow Jones did manage a reversal though, kicking its 10-day skid to the curb.

There’s now another storm front coming to rock the boat: A record US$6.6 trillion worth of options will fall off the board this Friday on Wall Street; share volumes typically spike – by a lot – when large tracts of options expire.

In steadier news overseas, the Bank of Japan and Bank of England both called to hold interest rates for the time being after the Fed-led volatility.

Back home, we have one last debutant sneaking onto the year’s IPO battleground before Christmas, with Mount Hope Mining ringing the bell at 1.30pm. Listing under ticker code MHM, the New South Wales-focused mining explorer is looking to raise $6 million in capital. Shares in the company will float at 20 cents.

HotCopper forum darling Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) has been trending this morning after the lithium producer’s share purchase plan got underway. Triton Minerals (ASX:TON) and Reward Minerals (ASX:RWD) too are being closely watched.

Citi has warned punters about an impending lithium supply surplus in 2025 but upgraded Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) to “Neutral” at the same time.

Looking at forex, the cheaper Aussie dollar is buying 62.3 US cents.

To commodities, which are in the greenback,

Iron Ore has slid again, to $101.85 a tonne in Singapore,

Brent Crude is trading at $72.61,

Gold is trading at $2,602 per ounce, and,

US natgas futures are at $3.62 per gigajoule.

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

Note: No Market Open recording included through Christmas period.