ASX ends flat after tech stocks lag; uranium miners rise

The Australian sharemarket remained stagnant on Monday, barely shifting from the opening bell as gains in energy stocks and uranium miners offset falls in tech and retail.

The ASX finished the day almost perfectly flat, gaining just 0.8 points, or 0.01 per cent, to close at 8728. It was a slow start to the bourse’s first full trading week of the new year, with just four of the ASX’s 11 sectors ending the day in the green.

Energy stocks initially propped up the local market but ended the day in the red, with Woodside dropping 1.4 per cent while Santos fell 1.2 per cent and Ampol dipped 0.2 per cent. The sector spent much of the day in the green despite an early fall in oil prices due to US strikes on Venezuela at the weekend.

Non-oil energy companies performed better, with uranium miner Paladin one of the index’s best performers, gaining 7.1 per cent, while fellow uranium extractor NexGen grew 8.3 per cent. The performance of uranium miners is connected to uranium prices, which are holding high due to soaring demand for nuclear energy from data centres.

Other miners also recorded gains across the board, with BHP adding 1.5 per cent, Fortescue gaining 1.6 per cent and Rio Tinto rising 1.3 per cent. Gold miner Northern Star rose 2.1 per cent after falling 7 per cent on Friday when it warned that it would produce 13 per cent less gold this financial year.

Those gains were barely enough to offset a dip in tech stocks, with the broader sector falling 2.6 per cent on the back of declines in Wisetech (3.2 per cent), XERO (3.9 per cent) and Technology One (1.7 per cent). Consumer goods company Wesfarmers also fell by 1 per cent.

The finance sector was flat, with CBA down 0.3 per cent, though Westpac (up 0.26 per cent), ANZ (up 0.74 per cent) and NAB (up 0.3 per cent) grew.

The Australian dollar was trading slightly higher at about US66.7¢.

Overseas, the first trading week of the year could shake the US sharemarket out of its winter holiday slumber as investors parse the rapid developments in Venezuela and monthly jobs data looms.

Stocks slid in the final session of 2025, with the benchmark S&P 500 falling to a monthly loss for December. But the index still rose more than 16 per cent in 2025, its third straight year of double-digit percentage gains, while the Cboe Volatility index was just above its lows for the year.

Trading volumes were thin at the end of 2025, but the new year could get off to an eventful start.

After the weekend’s events, when US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and US President Donald Trump said the country would be under temporary American control, investors said such developments in the oil-rich South American country raised concerns around geopolitical risks, and that any oil price volatility would ripple through assets.

Investors also await more drama with a US Supreme Court decision looming on Trump’s tariffs, along with his choice of a new chair for the Federal Reserve. The US corporate earnings season is also around the corner.

In the first session of 2026 on Friday, the S&P 500 posted a slim gain as semiconductor shares rallied.

Although the benchmark is near record highs, it is hovering around its late-October level, said Matthew Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak.

“The market is looking for direction,” Maley said. “We break out of these ranges and that’s going to give people either a lot of confidence or a lot of concern, depending on which way it breaks.”

Jobs data due on Friday could provide a jolt either way. Concerns over weakness in the labour market prompted the Fed to lower interest rates at each of its last three meetings of 2025, as the US central bank juggled its goals of full employment and containing inflation.

Lower rates have supported equities, but the extent of further cuts in 2026 is unclear. Fed officials were divided over the path for monetary policy at the most recent meeting in December. Inflation remains above the Fed’s annual target of 2 per cent.

“Softening in the labour market has really given the Fed good cover to change their outlook about reducing rates,” said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management in Chicago.

At the same time, investors are wary that an overly weak report could signal more economic concern than markets now anticipate.

With Reuters

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