The local energy sector will be one to watch today, after oil prices jumped overnight, up about 4 per cent.

There were a few factors behind the latest price spike, including more fuel being consumed as people prepared for Hurricane Milton.

Here are some detail from Reuters:

In the US, the world’s largest oil producer and consumer, Hurricane Milton barreled across Florida, where about a quarter of fuel stations sold out of gasoline and where the storm also knocked out power to more than 3.4 million homes and businesses.

“Closures of several product terminals, delayed tanker truck deliveries and disrupted pipeline movement will likely be affecting supplies well into next week given broad based power outages,” analysts at energy advisory firm Ritterbusch and Associates said in a note.

“This vast uncertainty across Florida petroleum infrastructure generally has supported gasoline values,” Ritterbusch said.

And the ongoing conflict in the Middle East also has traders on edge.

“Crude surged as traders focussed on the risks surrounding Israel’s potential retaliation for the recent Iranian missile strikes as IDF Minister Gallant warned that the strikes ‘will be deadly, precise and above all surprising’. Iran also warned that it is prepared to launch ‘hundreds and thousands of missiles … and target security military and economic centres’,” Westpac economist Jameson Coombs wrote in a note.

“Increased supply remains a focus in the background after the deal between the two governments in Libya back on September 27 saw a new central bank governor appointed paving the way for a resumption in oil production back to circa 1m barrels per day from the recent lows at 450k barrels per day. “

Overnight, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has revealed plans to start mass production of a new version of its artificial intelligence chip this year, as it tries to take ground from Nvidia.

However, the details of the chips unveiled by the AMD boss in San Francisco, including increased memory capacity, failed to cheer investors.

AMD shares closed 4 per cent lower, while Nvidia shares rose 1.6 per cent.

Analysts say the stock had already rallied in anticipation of the event, plus the firm didn’t reveal any new customers for its chips.

But with plenty of demand for the technology from the likes of Microsoft and Meta, it’s unlikely to have trouble finding a market.

So-called “big box” retailers are facing the scrutiny of a parliamentary inquiry, which will investigate whether the likes of Bunnings, Petstock, Chemist Warehouse and Ikea have too much market power.

Small, independent retailers say they are struggling to compete with the big players that have the scale to offer exclusive brands and price-beating offers.

If you missed The Business last night, you can catch up on the story from our reporter Emilia Terzon here:

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While smaller competitors aren’t their number one fans, a Roy Morgan release reveals consumers have loyalty to the big brands — Bunnings has been named the most trusted  brand for 2024, with Aldi and Kmart taking out the supermarket and department store categories.

Markets are pretty sensitive to the expected path of interest rates, as we saw when Wall Street slipped overnight as traders deemed US inflation had eased not quite enough for their liking.

The monthly consumer price index cooled in the month, up 0.2 per cent, or 2.4 per cent on an annual basis— its lowest point in three years —  but slightly above what economists had predicted.

Annual core inflation came in at 3.3 per cent.

On the other hand, weekly jobless claims were worse than expected.

“The surge in claims likely reflects the impacts of Hurricane Helene. Hurricane Milton, which made landfall in Florida yesterday, is likely to see additional disruption,” ANZ economists noted.

This mixed bag — along with comments from the Atlanta Fed president that he’d be open to skipping a rate cut this year — saw market expectations for a cut at November’s central bank meeting retreat somewhat.

“Investors were torn between a stronger than expected CPI report and a weaker than expected unemployment claims report,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Capital in Chicago, told Reuters.

“One showed inflation running hotter than expected, and the other showed the economy looking weaker than expected.

“It’s the worst of both worlds.”

Good morning, Stephanie Chalmers here with you on this Friday(!!!) morning.

But over in the US it’s still very much yesterday, and Wall Street has just closed in the red.

It was a mixed bag of data out of the US, which had the overall effect of slightly increasing market expectations that the Federal Reserve will hold rates steady next month — although a rate cut remains the majority view.

Locally, the ASX rose yesterday but as we speak futures are pointing to a fall at the open.

Stay with us through the morning on markets!