It's been a heck of a week for S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) shares.
Buoyed by an unexpectedly dovish US Federal Reserve meeting overnight on Wednesday, the ASX 200 is up a very welcome 3.6% for the week in late afternoon trade on Friday.
Here's why these four ASX 200 shares leapt into The Motley Fool's headlines in the trading week almost gone by.
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Four ASX 200 shares grabbing The Motley Fool's headlines
First off, we have mining giant BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP).
The ASX 200 share grabbed The Motley Fool headlines on Monday amid threatened strike action by safety compliance officials at five BHP-owned coal mines in Queensland.
The open-cut coordinators, seeking improved enterprise agreements, are voting in a ballot that could see them go on an indefinite strike or no longer perform risk assessments. That ballot closes next week, on 20 December. BHP faces the potential strike action as early as 28 December.
BHP was back in the headlines on Thursday amid revelations that CEO Mike Henry had sold $18.8 million worth of BHP shares. That big divestment was related to Henry's divorce.
BHP shares are up 4% this week.
Also grabbing The Motley Fool's headlines this week was ASX 200 retail share JB Hi-Fi Ltd (ASX: JBH).
This came after Maurice Blackburn Lawyers launched a class action suit against the company in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
The suit alleges the ASX 200 share sold extended warranties that "had little to no value to JB Hi-Fi's customers, because the Australian Consumer Law already gives them the same (and often better) rights … without paying for an extended warranty".
JB Hi-Fi is refuting the allegations, which could see it facing compensation payments for any customers who paid for an extended warranty between 1 January 2011 and 8 December 2023.
JB Hi-Fi shares are up 3.7% this week.
Also making headline news
ASX 200 lithium share Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) was back in The Motley Fool headlines on Thursday after shares in the battered miner surged 14% in intraday trading.
That would have caught the attention of the cohort of short sellers betting against the stock. Core Lithium started the week as the third most shorted stock on the ASX, with a short interest of 9.9%.
Core Lithium shares joined a broader global rally among lithium producers, spurred in part by the dovish signals from the US Fed overnight on Wednesday.
The Core Lithium share price is up 13% this week.
Rounding off the list of ASX 200 shares grabbing The Motley Fool headlines this week is leading gold miner Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST).
Northern Star joined a host of other ASX 200 gold shares making news on Thursday as the gold sector went ballistic, with the Northern Star share price closing up 8.1% on the day. That saw the mining giant add a whopping $1.2 billion to its market cap.
This rally was also fuelled by the Wednesday night wrap-up of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting. With the odds of rate cuts from the Fed in 2024 increasing post-meeting, gold (which pays no yield) gained 0.4% to trade for US$2,034 per ounce.
And amid a brighter outlook for the yellow metal, Thursday saw the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Gold Index (ASX: XGD) – which also contains some smaller miners outside of the ASX 200 shares – finish the day up 6.5%.
