October 23, 2025 — 5.42am first published at Bloomberg Local energy stocks advanced as oil prices jumped after the US Treasury Department blacklisted Russian state-run oil giant Rosneft and Lukoil in the Trump administration’s latest bid to pressure President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. West Texas Intermediate rose as much as 2.5 per cent to near $US60 a barrel, while Brent settled 2 per cent higher at near $US63 a barrel. Woodside Energy jumped 3.7 per cent, Santos gained 1.7 per cent and Australia’s largest refiner Ampol rose 3.6 per cent in early trade. Gold miners recovered some of Wednesday’s heavy losses, despite the price of the safe haven retreating further overnight, with Northern Star (up 2.6 per cent), Newmont (up 1 per cent), Evolution Mining (up 2.3 per cent) and Perseus (up 1.8 per cent) advancing. Iron ore heavyweights are mixed with Fortescue adding 1.2 per cent, while Rio Tinto shed 0.7 per cent and BHP was down 2.1 per cent. BHP chair Ross McEwan on Thursday downplayed concerns of the mining giant being squeezed by China’s state-run iron ore buyer on their latest iron ore pricing negotiations “We’ve had relationships in China now for decades, and we have a pretty good working relationship,” McEwan said in response to a shareholder’s question at the meeting. “But this is a commercial negotiation that is going on, as it does every year.” Financial stocks are lower. Commonwealth Bank, the biggest stock on the bourse, shed 1.1 per cent, National Australia Bank fell 0.7 per cent, Westpac gave up 0.5 per cent and ANZ Bank edged higher. Insurance Australia Group shares rose 3 per cent after the company raised its guidance for full-year reported insurance profit by $100 million to between $1.55 billion and $1.75 billion. Advertisement Super Retail Group fell 3.4 per cent after a trading update published before its annual general meeting. Proxy votes displayed before the meeting showed the chair Judith Swales was set to survive a sizeable protest vote against her re-election, with a 74.8 per cent vote in favour of her re-election and a 25 per cent vote against. Loading