The Liontown Resources Limited (ASX: LTR) share price has been on fire in recent months. Since 23 June, Liontown shares have more than doubled, rising from 88 cents to the $1.91 the lithium company closed at today. But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing.

The Liontown share price has also experienced significant volatility over the past year or so, evidenced by the fact that, despite these recent and breathtaking gains, Liontown shares are only up by around 2.15% over the past 12 months.

Perhaps the more recent successes that this company has enjoyed have come from the falling Australian dollar. A year ago, the Aussie dollar was buying around 75 US cents. But the two currencies have spent the past year diverging dramatically. Today, one Aussie dollar will only buy 64 US cents. Less than a month ago, it was 62 US cents.

Why a low Aussie dollar is a boon for Liontown shares

When our local currency falls against the US dollar, it can have a big impact on exporters like Liontown. Most commodities, including lithium, are priced in US dollars on international markets. That means that producers like Liontown have to receive US dollars in payment for the lithium they sell overseas. Even though they are Australian companies.

Thus, if one US dollar is buying more Aussie dollars, then exporters like Liontown become more profitable when they bring the profits back home and convert these US dollars back to our local currency.

So this could explain why Liontown has had such a good time of it on the markets lately.

But where to from here? Will the good times keep on rolling for Liontown?

Well, perhaps not, according to one expert. As reported in the Australian Financial Review last week, investment bank JPMorgan is predicting that the Aussie dollar is likely to go up over the next year or so, rather than stay at its current and historically low levels.

JPMorgan’s currency strategists reportedly expect the Aussie dollar to “claw back steep declines in 2022 over the September quarter, before climbing further to US70¢ ($1.11) by the June quarter of 2023”.

“We’ve encountered an extreme sort of strength scenario in terms of the US dollar”, JPMorgan’s Jason Steed was quoted as stating. “Clearly, you’ve got a range of companies benefiting from selling a product that is US dollar denominated and reporting in Aussie dollars”. That would include Liontown Resources.

So perhaps the pleasant tailwind Liontown shares have enjoyed in recent months could be coming to an end. But we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

The post Could Liontown shares keep surging on a weaker Aussie dollar? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today
• Here are the 3 most traded ASX 200 shares on Friday
• Why are ASX lithium shares smashing the market today?
• These were the best ASX lithium shares to buy in October
• These were the best-performing ASX 200 shares in October

JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended JPMorgan Chase. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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Three ASX resources shares had a stellar run in Monday’s trading session.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 Resources Index (ASX: XJR) also outperformed most other sectors, closing 3.33% higher today.

The broader market experienced a bit of a lift, too, with the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) up 0.50% at the close.

Let’s take a look at which companies were off to the races on Monday.

Winsome Resources Ltd (ASX: WR1)

Winsome Resources shares closed today’s trading 36.49% higher at $1.01, after touching an all-time high of $1.12 early this afternoon. There’s no news today from the company to explain its share price surge.

However, last week the lithium explorer posted results from its numerous drill holes at its Adina site in Quebec, Canada. Samples from the drilling are being taken to the lab for further analysis.

The company also posted its investors’ presentation to the market on Friday. Highlights included that it has detected high grades of lithium and tantalum at its discovery sites and is ready to access Quebec’s hydro-power infrastructure.

Trek Metals Ltd (ASX: TKM)

Shares in Trek Metals also had a great start to the week, closing 37.50% higher at 8.8 cents after surging to 10 cents apiece in early trade. Trek Metals announced a new discovery to the market this morning, making the reason behind its share price rise today easier to discern.

Specifically, the lithium share posted results from its rock chip assays for its Tambourah site in Western Australia.

The assay samples returned lithium concentrations of up to 3.07% Li2O.

Trek Metals CEO Derek Marshall gave a bullish interpretation of the result, stating:

Confirming very high-grade lithium at surface in multiple spodumene-bearing pegmatite dykes is about as good as it gets for this stage of exploration, highlighting the enormous prospectivity of the mineralised system at Tambourah.

Boab Metals Ltd (ASX: BML)

Finally, the Boab Metals share price gained 29.17% to 31 cents at the close of trading on Monday. The precious metals explorer reached a high of 34 cents around midday and responded to an ASX price and volume query this afternoon.

The company noted that it had released an investors presentation on 2 November as its share price surged to new heights.

In the presentation, the company updated the market on its recent operations, including the completion of tenders for its process plant EPC and early work projects.

Other efforts included almost finishing its project’s definitive feasibility study and offtake award process.

Finally, the company notes that its share price has been strongly correlated with the silver price, noting that the price of this precious metal has risen by nearly 7% since the presentation was released.

The post These 3 ASX resources shares exploded more than 35% on Monday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Guess which ASX lithium share just rocketed 50% on a new discovery
• 5 big ASX announcements making news this week
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• 3 ASX resources shares leaping over 15% today
• Why did this ASX mining share just rocket 40% before being halted?

Motley Fool contributor Matthew Farley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was driven higher by mining shares on Monday. The index gained 0.6% to close at 6,933.7 points.

The iron ore price has also had a green run, as my Fool colleague Bernd reports. Rumours China could be about to loosen up on its COVID-zero policies briefly appeared to drive the material’s value higher.

Iron ore futures lifted 2.1% to US$85.16 a tonne on Friday. At the same time, gold futures lifted 2.8% to US$1,676.70.

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, the S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) outperformed on Monday, gaining 3.7%.

The S&P/ASX 200 Energy Index (ASX: XEJ) also lifted 1.3% amid soaring oil prices.

The Brent crude oil price rose by 4.1% to US$98.57 a barrel on Friday while the US Nymex crude oil price lifted 5% to US$92.61 a barrel.

Sadly, its gain was offset by the 2.2% tumble posted by the S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology Index (ASX: XIJ).

All in all, eight of the ASX 200’s 11 sectors closed in the green today. But which share outperformed all others? Keep reading to find out.

Top 10 ASX 200 shares countdown

Today’s top-performing ASX 200 share was newbie Capricorn Metals Ltd (ASX: CMM). The gold developer’s stock leapt 10% on news of its Mt Gibson Gold Project’s mineral resource estimate.

Today’s biggest gains were made by these shares:

ASX-listed company	Share price	Price change
Capricorn Metals Ltd (ASX: CMM)	$3.85	10%
Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN)	$2.15	6.97%
West African Resources Ltd (ASX: WAF)	$1.08	6.93%
Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX: GOR)	$1.405	6.84%
Ramelius Resources Limited (ASX: RMS)	$0.805	6.62%
Sandfire Resources Ltd (ASX: SFR)	$3.87	6.61
Lake Resources N.L. (ASX: LKE)	$1.145	6.51%
Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP)	$57.70	6.2%
De Grey Mining Limited (ASX: DEG)	$1.115	6.19%
Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST)	$9.29	6.05%

Our top 10 shares countdown is a recurring end-of-day summary to let you know which companies were making big moves on the day. Check in at Fool.com.au after the weekday market closes to see which stocks make the countdown.

The post Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today  appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Here are the 3 most heavily traded ASX 200 shares on Monday
• Why is the De Grey Mining share price leaping 7% today?
• Could this help turn a corner for the Lake Resources share price?
• Why is the Telstra share price trailing the ASX 200 on Monday?
• Why Arafura Rare Earths, BHP, Capricorn Metals, and Newcrest shares are rising today

Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Dominos Pizza Enterprises Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

Warren Buffett is a firm believer in index funds. In fact, in his 2013 letter to Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) shareholders, he wrote that his will recommends that most of the cash that goes to his family be put in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund.

But does Buffett own any index funds himself? The answer is yes. Here are the only two index funds in Buffett’s portfolio — and how they could make you money.

Buffett’s only index funds

Berkshire’s portfolio includes around 50 individual stocks. It also includes a couple of very similar index funds — the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEMKT: SPY) and the Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO).

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, or SPY for short, is run by State Street. It was the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) listed in the U.S. SPY currently has roughly $360 billion in assets under management. Its annual expense ratio is 0.0945%.

The Vanguard 500 Index Fund ETF, or VOO, as its name indicates, is operated by The Vanguard Group. Vanguard was a pioneer of mutual funds years ago. The company launched VOO in 2010. The ETF now has around $686 billion in assets under management. Its annual expense ratio is a super-low 0.03%. 

Both of these ETFs attempt to track the S&P 500 index. Unsurprisingly, their holdings are nearly identical. So are their historical performances.

How they can make you money

Investing in SPY and VOO makes you a partial owner of the 500 biggest companies that trade on major U.S. stock exchanges. You’ll own stakes in companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Buffett’s own Berkshire Hathaway. 

All of these companies work continually to generate more profits for their shareholders. That means they’re trying to make you money.

Many of them even pay you to own them by distributing regular dividends. These dividends are very important over time. Since SPY’s inception in 1993, nearly half of its total return has come from dividend payouts. 

Buffett wrote in that 2013 letter to Berkshire shareholders:

The goal of the non-professional [investor] should not be to pick winners — neither he nor his “helpers” [professional investment managers] can do that — but should rather be to own a cross-section of businesses that in aggregate are bound to do well. A low-cost S&P 500 index fund will achieve this goal.

That’s still great advice. And, in a sense, the S&P 500 index funds pick winners for you. SPY and VOO automatically weed out the worst companies. If a company doesn’t grow as quickly as its peers, it could eventually fall out of the S&P 500 index (and thus out of the ETFs’ holdings).

Buying and holding SPY and VOO pays off over the long run. SPY has delivered an average annual return of 9.35% since 1993. VOO (which didn’t exist during the steep market downturns in the first decade of this century) has delivered an average annual return of 13.1% since 2010.

The timing is good

But should you buy these S&P 500 index funds now with a bear market underway? Actually, yes.

Buffett’s advice would almost certainly be in favor of buying either of these two ETFs. He told CNBC in 2018, “The best chance to deploy capital is when things are down.” And, of course, there’s one of the legendary investor’s most famous quotes to “be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

Granted, you won’t be able to beat the market with SPY and VOO since they essentially reflect the overall market performance. For most investors, that’s not a problem. If you’re one of the exceptions, though, you can always follow in Buffett’s footsteps. Even though the multibillionaire is a big fan of index funds, he still loves to buy high-quality stocks at reasonable prices. 

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

The post The only 2 ETFs in Warren Buffett’s portfolio — and how they could make you money appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Keith Speights has positions in Amazon, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway (B shares), Microsoft, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF.  John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended the following options: long March 2023 $120 calls on Apple and short March 2023 $130 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Amazon and Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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