On Tuesday, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) continued its positive run with a solid gain. The benchmark index rose 0.55% to 8,735.7 points

Will the market be able to build on this on Wednesday? Here are five things to watch:

ASX 200 to edge lower

The Australian share market is expected to edge lower on Wednesday despite a strong session on Wall Street. According to the latest SPI futures, the ASX 200 is expected to open the day 1 point lower. In the United States, the Dow Jones rose 0.5%, the S&P 500 climbed 0.6%, and the Nasdaq pushed 0.45% higher.

Oil prices rise

ASX 200 energy shares Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT) and Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) could have a decent session on Wednesday after oil prices rose overnight. According to Bloomberg, the WTI crude oil price is up 0.4% to US$89.80 a barrel and the Brent crude oil price is up 0.65% to US$100.96 a barrel. Traders were bidding oil higher in response to supply risks.

Buy Deterra shares

The team at Morgans thinks Deterra Royalties Ltd (ASX: DRR) shares could be good value. The broker has retained its buy rating on the mining royalties company’s shares with a trimmed price target of $4.75. It said: “Deterra has announced the acquisition of a 1.75% NSR royalty on ~84% of Ivanhoe Electric’s Santa Cruz copper project for US$74.15m cash. As part of the deal reduced to 1.68% NSR for first 6 years of production, and 1.57% thereafter, with a current 24-year mine life. >We value the Santa Cruz royalty at risked A$110m, or A$0.21/share, and expect it to add A$17-21mpa to EBITDA by FY30F (~7% earnings accretive). A formidable inflation hedge with upside leverage to metal prices, we maintain a BUY rating with a A$4.75 Target Price (was A$4.85).”

Gold price rises

ASX 200 gold shares Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX: WGX) and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) could have a good session on Wednesday after the gold price pushed higher. According to CNBC, the gold futures price is up 0.8% to US$4,191.5 an ounce. This was driven by a weaker US dollar and softening Treasury yields.

Dicker Data shares on watch

Dicker Data Ltd (ASX: DDR) shares will be on watch on Wednesday if they return from their trading halt. The computer hardware and software distributor requested a trading halt as it prepared to announce a binding agreement to acquire 100% of Sektor Group for around A$111.8 million. Executive Chair and Managing Director, Fiona Brown, said: “Sektor expands our reach into attractive adjacent categories including point-of-sale and enterprise mobility as well as further strengthening our physical security and cybersecurity offering. Importantly, Sektor also provides Dicker Data with an established operational footprint in Thailand and Malaysia, accelerating our regional expansion strategy.”

The post 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Wednesday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro 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 positions in and has recommended Dicker Data. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

Healius vs Australian Clinical Labs shares

If you’re considering a slice of Australia’s diagnostic healthcare sector, you might be torn between Healius Ltd (ASX: HLS) and Australian Clinical Labs Ltd (ASX: ACL) shares. Both companies are big names in pathology, with nationwide reach and established reputations. But their fundamentals, dividends, and recent share price momentum tell very different stories. Let’s dive into what really sets these two healthcare stocks apart.

The case for Healius

Healius is one of Australia’s largest pathology service providers, operating under well-known brands like Laverty, Dorevitch, and QML Pathology. Healius ran around 2,000 collection sites and close to 100 labs across the country. In May 2025, Healius sold its Lumus Imaging business and now focuses on pathology and its bioanalytical laboratory arm, Agilex Biolabs.

Looking at current fundamentals, three points really stand out:

• The share price has been hammered this year, with a -52.5% year-to-date return.
• Healius’s P/E ratio is 55.56, with an earnings per share of -0.563. (Note: Healius’s reported P/E ratio may be based on a different earnings measure than the EPS figure shown, which is why they may appear inconsistent.)
• Dividend yield is currently 0.00%. Despite a long history of fully franked payouts, the last special dividend was paid in May 2025, and before that, ordinary dividends dried up after 2022.

So while Healius is a large, established player with an extensive network, it’s struggling for profitability and income at the moment.

The case for Australian Clinical Labs

Australian Clinical Labs is another leading pathology player, with a strong footprint across nearly all states and territories (excluding Tasmania). The company operates more than 75 laboratories and 1,300 collection centres, handling over 12 million episodes a year. ACL is also a significant provider to both private and public hospitals, and increasingly active in specialised screenings and commercial testing.

Here are a few of the most notable fundamentals right now:

• Year-to-date return is a healthy 8.4%—a far cry from Healius’s collapse.
• The P/E ratio is 23.11, backed by positive earnings per share of 0.141.
• Dividend yield is 4.56%, with 100% franking. ACL has delivered regular, fully franked dividends; the latest was 9.25 cents per share in September 2026.

Overall, ACL is profitable, growing, and paying out a solid stream of income.

Valuation comparison

Here’s how the two companies stack up on key numbers:

Metric	Healius	Australian Clinical Labs
Market Cap	$305.00 million	$514.79 million
P/E Ratio	55.56 (Note: P/E may not be based on the EPS shown, which is negative)	23.11
Earnings per share (EPS)	-0.563	0.141
Dividend Yield	0.00%	4.56%
Franking	100%	100%
YTD Return	-52.5%	8.4%

While both companies offer fully franked dividends, only ACL is currently paying and yielding above 4%. Healius has lost significant ground—both in share price and earnings.

Recent share price momentum

Comparing recent share price performance up to 1 October 2026:

• Healius closed at $0.42 on 1 October 2026, down 2.3% on the day and showing steep declines so far in 2026. Year to date, Healius is down 52.5%.
• Australian Clinical Labs closed at $2.76 on 1 October 2026, falling 3.2% that day, but overall in positive territory for 2026 with an 8.4% gain year to date.

Both shares dipped on the last trading day, but their trajectories are worlds apart this year. Healius has been in steep decline; ACL has outperformed and delivered positive momentum.

Which is the better buy?

If I had to choose between Healius and Australian Clinical Labs today, my pick would be clear: Australian Clinical Labs. The company is profitable, offers a solid fully franked dividend yield, and has delivered meaningful share price growth this year. Meanwhile, Healius is battling negative earnings, has halted regular dividends, and has seen its market cap and share price tumble by more than half in 2026. ACL’s lower P/E ratio (compared to Healius) also suggests investors aren’t paying as much for each dollar of earnings, at least within the context of these two healthcare stocks. While both serve a vital role in Australian pathology and may benefit from long-term healthcare trends, only ACL currently pairs business quality with real income and positive momentum. That’s where I’d be leaning with my investment dollars today.

The post Healius vs Australian Clinical Labs: Which ASX pathology share wins? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

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Motley Fool contributor Laura Stewart 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. This article was prepared with the assistance of Large Language Model (LLM) tools for the initial draft. Any content assisted by AI is subject to our robust human-in-the-loop quality control framework, involving thorough review, substantial editing, and fact-checking by our experienced writers and editors holding appropriate credentials. The Motley Fool Australia stands behind the work of our editorial team and takes ultimate responsibility for the content published by The Motley Fool Australia.

I think long-term investing is the best way to go when it comes to ASX shares.

Holding a good investment for a long time gives compounding time to work its magic, and it also means that investors aren’t unnecessarily interrupting the growth by activating a capital gains tax (CGT) event and paying some of the value to the ATO.

In my view, the two ideas below are great ones to own for the long term.  

Siteminder Ltd (ASX: SDR)

When a business is compounding its financials at a strong pace, it’s very likely to deliver pleasing shareholder returns over time. Siteminder is growing at double-digits each year, and I think that’s set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Siteminder provides software to many thousands of hotels around the world. The Siteminder offering is the world’s leading hotel commerce platform, while Little Hotelier is an all-in-one hotel management software that helps smaller operators.

During FY26, the company added 5,900 properties to its customer base, taking the total count to 56,000. In recent times, it has been targeting larger hotels, which come with scale benefits.

The company’s top-line growth was solid during FY26, with revenue up 18.6% to $266.1 million and annual recurring revenue (ARR) up 14.9% to $313.7 million. The ARR figure suggests another solid year of revenue growth is ahead.

It’s experiencing momentum across its new offerings within the ‘smart platform’, which I expect will play a bigger part in the coming years.

Dynamic revenue plus now supports more than 50,000 rooms (more than double the HY26 level) – hoteliers are benefiting from new AI-powered capabilities and predictive demand analytics.

Channels plus grew from 7,000 hotels in HY26 to almost 10,000 at the year-end. The smart distribution program continued to contribute to partner outcomes. These are helping drive a higher average revenue per user (ARPU), which rose 9.3% to $429 in FY26.

The ASX share’s profit margins continue to improve. The adjusted group gross profit margin increased 84 basis points (0.84%) to 67.2%. It also reported 96.5% growth of adjusted operating profit (EBITDA) to $28.1 million, and adjusted free cash flow increased 123% to $10.5 million.

According to the projection on CommSec, the Siteminder share price is valued at just 17 times FY29’s estimated earnings.

WCM Quality Global Growth Fund (ASX: WCMQ)

The other investment I want to highlight is this exchange-traded fund (ETF), which is operated by the WCM investment team, based in Laguna Beach, California. It’s a very different environment from the actual Wall Street in New York, helping WCM invest differently.

WCM’s investment process is based on the belief that corporate culture is the biggest influence on a company’s ability to grow its competitive advantages (or economic moat).

It aims to have a portfolio of between 20 and 40 stocks with access to quality global companies primarily in the high-growth consumer, technology, and healthcare sectors. I’m calling this an ASX share because it’s about investing in shares, and we can buy it on the ASX.

The investment team aren’t looking for a quick return, but long-term compounders that are delivering a rising return on invested capital (ROIC), which is a good sign of a strengthening bottom line, helping shareholder returns.

This team has shown that the investment strategy has worked for the long term. In the 10 years to August 2026, the investment strategy has returned an average of 16.2%. Of course, past performance is not a guarantee of future returns.

I’d be very happy to own this fund for the next decade (and beyond), while receiving a minimum distribution yield of 5%.

The post 2 top ASX shares to buy and hold for the next decade appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has positions in SiteMinder and Wcm Quality Global Growth Fund. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended SiteMinder. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended SiteMinder. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.