Aussie investors will see the local bourse open a modest 0.29% higher this morning after China’s restrained response to Trump’s first trade war salvo.

China whacked 10% tariffs on U.S. oil and agricultural machines as well as 15% surcharges on U.S. coal and LNG. Other similar exports, like tellurium and any tungsten-related materials, were pinged by Beijing too.

The feeling is both the U.S. and China have made “muted” first moves.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing – markets are just slowly starting to ignore tariff talk.

In fact, despite China throwing its trade weight around in response to Trump’s gambit, all three major Wall Street indices were up overnight: The tech-loaded Nasdaq composite especially had a nice run-up, adding up to 1.2% at close.

Maybe the biggest thing to watch for the Aussie markets is we had a similar open yesterday before handing back its 0.8% gain – the same may happen again.

Back home, things go on as usual under the trade war shadow with a slew of Oz companies starting to share half-year results as earnings season gets underway.

Amcor PLC (ASX:AMC), Far LTD (ASX:FAR), Focus Minerals (ASX:FML), and Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR) are among the two dozen companies on the docket.

HotCopper investors on the forums have already dialled in on Westar Resources (ASX:WSR) today too after the Perth gold miner started drilling at Mindoolah and Mageye – perfectly timed considering gold’s top price.

Looking at forex, the Aussie dollar is buying 62.5 US cents.

To commodities, which are in the greenback,

Iron Ore keeps climbing this week, to $105.05 a tonne in Singapore,

Brent Crude is trading at $75.97,

Gold is at its ATH again at $2,849 per ounce, and, 

US natgas futures are at $3.22 per gigajoule.

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