NEW YORK, March 27, 2026, 16:06 (EDT)
BHP Group’s U.S.-listed shares rose about 1.1% to $69.24 by 3:51 p.m. EDT on Friday, beating a broad Wall Street selloff and slightly outpacing Rio Tinto. The S&P 500 was down 1.6% and the Nasdaq off 2.1% as oil surged on Middle East war worries. “Words alone aren’t cutting it right now,” Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said of the market mood. 1
The move matters because BHP is walking into its next operating update with investors trying to judge whether the latest shocks are noise or something stickier. The miner paid its interim dividend of 73 U.S. cents a share on Thursday, and its next operational review — effectively a production update — is due on April 22. 2
The first near-term question is Western Australia. Reuters reported on Thursday that Cyclone Narelle shut several ports in the Pilbara mining hub, but Port Hedland, the world’s largest iron ore export point, stayed open. 3
That left room for traders to assume the immediate hit to BHP may stay limited. In February, Mike Henry said BHP’s Western Australia iron ore business had posted record first-half production and shipments, while copper supplied 51% of first-half underlying EBITDA — a measure of operating earnings — overtaking iron ore for the first time. Henry said the company had positioned itself ahead of a “strengthening copper market” and was adding a sixth rail car dumper at Port Hedland to lift sustainable volumes above 305 million metric tons. 4
The copper angle is still doing some work for the shares. Chile’s Codelco, the world’s biggest copper producer, reported on Friday that 2025 EBITDA rose 23% and kept its 2026 output target, keeping copper in focus across the sector. 5
Trade flows are shifting too. Reuters reported this week that India’s iron ore imports are set to hit a seven-year high in the fiscal year ending March 31, with Lalit Ladkat, a senior analyst at consultancy CRU, saying JSW Steel was a key driver. A cargo of BHP’s Jimblebar fines is heading to India in a rare sale after discounts helped move material blocked in China. 6
But the support under BHP could thin fast. Brent crude rose 4.2% to $112.57 a barrel on Friday. If fuel stays high or port outages widen, the same mix that let BHP outperform the index could start eating into margins instead. 1
For now, investors appear willing to lean on dividend support, BHP’s copper tilt and the assumption that Port Hedland keeps ore moving. The cleaner test comes on April 22, when BHP is scheduled to publish its operational review for the nine months to March 31. 2
