The BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price is faring quite well so far this Monday, all things considered. BHP shares are presently up by 0.28% at $41.665. That looks decent against the broader S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO). The ASX 200 is down by 0.69% so far today at just over 7,065 points.
But over the past week or so, the story is far better for BHP. The Big Australian has gained 7% since last Monday. The miner is also up an even more pleasing 13% over the past month. Investors certainly approved of the FY22 earnings report that BHP dropped last week.
As we covered at the time, this saw BHP report a 16% surge in underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to US$40.3 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) also rose by 25% to US$4.212. This led BHP to declare a final dividend of US$1.75 per share.
But what does the future hold for BHP? After all, investors are still a little concerned about the trajectory of the global economy going forward. It's not too hard to find an investor or commentator that is eyeing off a potential global recession in the next 12 months.
What's next for the BHP share price?
Well, one expert investor is still very bullish for ASX iron ore miners like BHP. And it's all thanks to China. According to reporting in The Age today, the Ausbil Global Resources Fund reckons demand for raw resources in China is only going higher in the short to medium term.
Ausbil co-portfolio managers Luke Smith and James Stewart told the Age that China "had already commenced the process of stimulating growth and was expected to accelerate stimulus in the second half of 2022 and into 2023".
Here's some more of what they had to say:
While Western developed economies are slowing, China is reopening, and is likely to accelerate growth coming out of recent hard COVID lockdowns through significant stimulus…
Although demand may soften from the West, markets are tight, and any acceleration from Chinese demand should underpin prices that are already stretched… From an investment perspective, this does not mean we are aggressively invested in the current environment, given significant uncertainty, but this view does support us maintaining a positive net exposure in the current market.
This outlook gels with what BHP CEO Mike Henry had to say when the company reported its results last week:
We expect China to emerge as a source of stability for commodity demand in the year ahead, with policy support progressively taking hold. At the same time, we expect to see a slowdown in advanced economies as monetary policy tightens, as well as ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and inflationary pressures.
So lots of optimism for BHP all around going forward. This mining giant is certainly worth keeping an eye on over the rest of the year and beyond.
At the current BHP share price, this ASX 200 miner has a market capitalisation of around $211 billion, with a dividend yield of 11.52%.
