Closing Bell: ASX retreats to two-week low on hot inflation print
Hot inflation numbers pushed the market into a quick retreat in trade today, despite a rally in uranium stocks. Pic: Getty Images
- ASX falls to two-week lows, down 0.96pc
- Healthcare, industrials, financials smashed by high inflation read
- Uranium and resource stocks stage recovery
ASX tumbles on CPI read but uranium rallies
Any chance of an intraday recovery was put to bed by today’s CPI reading, which came in much hotter than anyone was hoping for.
The ASX 200 had already been giving up ground in the first few hours of trade, chewing on a variety of quarterly reports and AGMs from Woolies (ASX:WOW) to Nick Scali (ASX:NCK).
By day end, it had retreated back beyond the hard-won 9000-point mark, falling 86.3 points or 0.96% to 8926.2.
The fall reset the market by about two weeks, returning us to October 15 levels.
Seven of 11 sectors joined the backpedal, none more so than healthcare. The debt-heavy industry is sensitive to interest rate cuts that almost certainly won’t be coming this year.
Plus, CSL (ASX:CSL) continued its retreat, down 3.84%.
The damage would’ve been worse if not for a rally in uranium stocks.
Overnight, the White House announced it would invest over US$80 billion in nuclear reactors as part of its strategy to revive the US domestic nuclear energy industry.
Our uranium miners hummed higher in response, none more so than Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) which produced a record 385,910 pounds of uranium from its Honeymoon project this quarter. BOE gained 19.81% by end of day.
Bannerman (ASX:BMN), Paladin (ASX:PDN), Lotus (ASX:LOT) and Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) all added more than 8.6%.
Two new resources explorers also listed to the market today – Golden Dragon (ASX:GDR) and Right Resources (ASX:RRE).
GDR (+12.5%) is chasing gold and critical minerals while RRE (-10%) is on the gold-copper tract.
Will there be another rate cut this FY?
Quarterly Consumer Price Index shocked to the higher side today, coming in at 1.3% compared to a 1.1% consensus.
“The CPI rose 1.3% in the September 2025 quarter, which is the highest quarterly rise since March 2023,” ABS head of prices statistics Michelle Marquardt said.
The largest contributor was electricity prices, up 9% as government rebates begin to fall off.
“This is the highest annual inflation rate since the June 2024 quarter when annual inflation was 3.8 per cent,” she said.
The numbers don’t look great, especially since earlier this week RBA Gov Michele Bullock indicated a rise of 0.9% in core CPI would be a “material miss”.
Analysts over at Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) reckon that’s just about put the nail in the coffin for another interest rate cut this cycle.
“Given the material upside surprise to the Q3 25 CPI, and the broad‑based nature of pricing pressures, we now expect the RBA to remain on hold from here,” the CBA Economics note read.
“Previously we expected one last rate cut in February 2026 to bring the cash rate back closer to neutral.”
Bloomberg data points to the possibility of a 0.25% cut by May, but that could be it for this financial year.
Rate-sensitive stocks in real estate and finance are being pummelled in the fallout.
Australian Financial Group (ASX:AFG) has shed 4.07%, Resimac Group (ASX:RMC) 3.83% and Stockland (ASX:SGP) 3.57%.
The major banks are also in retreat. CBA has copped a 2.18% haircut, while National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) is down 2.47% and Westpac (ASX:WBC) 2.91%.
ANZ (ASX:ANZ) has taken the least damage of the big caps, down just 0.46%.
ASX Leaders
Today’s best performing stocks (including small caps):
| Code | Name | Last | % Change | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KEY | KEY Petroleum | 0.1 | 144% | 164284 | $1,387,557 |
| FRX | Flexiroam Limited | 0.012 | 71% | 35871874 | $10,621,790 |
| MRD | Mount Ridley Mines | 0.018 | 50% | 78896661 | $14,324,180 |
| LIB | Liberty Metals | 0.0035 | 40% | 21864574 | $14,957,333 |
| AUH | Austchina Holdings | 0.002 | 33% | 3913474 | $4,538,075 |
| RML | Resolution Minerals | 0.094 | 29% | 76527079 | $131,267,277 |
| WBE | Whitebark Energy | 0.009 | 29% | 69620594 | $4,924,589 |
| GGE | Grand Gulf Energy | 0.0025 | 25% | 150000 | $5,640,850 |
| QXR | Qx Resources Limited | 0.005 | 25% | 515403 | $7,370,653 |
| AAJ | Aruma Resources Ltd | 0.021 | 24% | 6822297 | $6,967,289 |
| DOC | Doctor Care Anywhere | 0.16 | 23% | 505622 | $47,663,492 |
| FIN | FIN Resources Ltd | 0.011 | 22% | 43372999 | $6,253,996 |
| MTB | Mount Burgess Mining | 0.011 | 22% | 3378671 | $7,771,472 |
| DTR | Dateline Resources | 0.325 | 20% | 24773868 | $934,163,170 |
| ECT | Env Clean Tech Ltd. | 0.12 | 20% | 744693 | $27,603,110 |
| BLU | Blue Energy Limited | 0.006 | 20% | 10511180 | $15,059,868 |
| EMT | Emetals Limited | 0.006 | 20% | 11000927 | $4,250,000 |
| VRC | Volt Resources Ltd | 0.006 | 20% | 1580728 | $23,424,247 |
| BOE | Boss Energy Ltd | 1.9 | 19% | 24423188 | $659,725,202 |
| ZAG | Zuleika Gold Ltd | 0.037 | 19% | 2327194 | $23,153,278 |
| GED | Golden Deeps | 0.056 | 19% | 1745928 | $10,406,135 |
| WAG | Theaustralianwealth | 0.595 | 19% | 16394 | $37,182,500 |
| AMU | American Uranium | 0.19 | 19% | 183363 | $17,138,762 |
| RAS | Ragusa Minerals Ltd | 0.045 | 18% | 830365 | $6,771,554 |
| VBS | Vectus Biosystems | 0.13 | 18% | 10023 | $5,866,666 |
In the news…
FlexiRoam (ASX:FRX) has achieved record positive operating cash flow for the quarter, raking in $1.3 million in net cash compared to a $1.2 million outflow in the prior quarter.
FRX’s EBITDA came in at $1.1 million, with net profits after tax up from $159,000 the previous quarter to $1 million in the September Q.
Management says the numbers reflect a milestone in the revitalisation of the business initiated last year, possible because of the “clean financial baseline” that reflects FRX’s “sustainable, long-term earning position”.
Whitebark Energy (ASX:WBE) has identified new potential in gas zones at the Warro Gas Field in WA with a technical review.
The review revealed operational optimisations WBE can implement to access new dry gas zones that were previously supressed by water-bearing zones.
The company is looking to reassess the gas play’s viability with a $750k placement to unlock a potential resource of 4.4–11.6 TCF of gas-in-place, possibly the largest onshore gas resource in WA.
Grand Gulf Energy (ASX:GGE) has also made some material progress this quarter, engaging with the Namibian government as it works toward an exploration licence (PEL) for its offshore Block 2312 project.
An independent 2017 audit pegged Block 2312’s mean un-risked prospective resources at over 1.1 billion barrels (gross), a sizeable resource GGE is keen to assess further.
QX Resources (ASX:QXR) is another uranium company that had the good fortune – or foresight – to release its quarterly report today.
QXR’s current focus is the Madaba uranium project in Tanzania, home to a resource of 125Mlbs of uranium at a grade of 300ppm U3O8.
A review of historical drilling data is pointing to some promising geology, indicating ‘stacked’ mineralisation and a coalescing of individual uranium seams to form targets for drilling.
ASX Laggards
Today’s worst performing stocks (including small caps):
| Code | Name | Price | % Change | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMO | Bastion Minerals | 0.001 | -33% | 895000 | $3,354,675 |
| HLX | Helix Resources | 0.001 | -33% | 16140927 | $8,019,436 |
| SCN | Scorpion Minerals | 0.027 | -27% | 6796606 | $19,399,329 |
| RBR | RBR Group Ltd | 0.0015 | -25% | 2370048 | $6,882,570 |
| SPX | Spenda Limited | 0.003 | -25% | 875079 | $18,910,862 |
| CBY | Canterbury Resources | 0.022 | -24% | 670569 | $6,015,786 |
| CAE | Cannindah Resources | 0.047 | -22% | 787636 | $61,886,796 |
| ARU | Arafura Rare Earths | 0.295 | -21% | 1.18E+08 | $1,101,421,955 |
| CMG | Criticalmineralgrp | 0.17 | -21% | 93120 | $19,467,038 |
| AOK | Australian Oil. | 0.002 | -20% | 23199804 | $2,653,207 |
| RFT | Rectifier Technolog | 0.004 | -20% | 28963 | $6,909,920 |
| SRN | Surefire Rescs NL | 0.002 | -20% | 3367392 | $10,064,023 |
| G1C | Group One Capital | 0.06 | -19% | 227132 | $25,950,679 |
| TAS | Tasman Resources Ltd | 0.0245 | -18% | 1089930 | $10,420,582 |
| ANX | Anax Metals Ltd | 0.009 | -18% | 4295345 | $9,710,883 |
| LRM | Lion Rock Minerals | 0.036 | -18% | 16230187 | $134,812,354 |
| PVT | Pivotal Metals Ltd | 0.025 | -17% | 17215589 | $27,216,776 |
| ASQ | Australian Silica | 0.02 | -17% | 88215 | $6,764,649 |
| RDN | Raiden Resources Ltd | 0.005 | -17% | 749121 | $20,705,349 |
| HTG | Harvest Tech Grp Ltd | 0.017 | -15% | 3396921 | $19,213,669 |
| HWK | Hawk Resources. | 0.034 | -15% | 1834053 | $13,546,472 |
| RRE | Right Resources | 0.17 | -15% | 1897314 | $17,687,469 |
| DY6 | Dy6Metalsltd | 0.145 | -15% | 1732707 | $16,618,738 |
| IPB | IPB Petroleum Ltd | 0.006 | -14% | 4000 | $4,944,821 |
| PRM | Prominence Energy | 0.003 | -14% | 4546 | $3,112,117 |
In Case You Missed It
Energy Transition Minerals (ASX:ETM) has taken a step forward in its Kvanefjeld rare earths project legal proceedings as it makes the case for an exploitation licence with the Greenland government.
A $1.23m placement paired with an SPP of up to $1.25m, will provide Mount Hope Mining (ASX:MHM) with the capital to advance its next drill program in the Cobar Basin.
The Red Brick Road trend at Arika Resources’ (ASX:ARI) Yundamindra project is emerging as a second target corridor after drilling returned gold hits.
Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) has hit up to 13.1g/t gold in its first drill hole testing the new Titan East target, part of its Karratha project in WA’s North Pilbara.
Orthocell (ASX: OCC) has appointed highly credentialed medical device distributor MontsMed as the exclusive in-country distributor for its flagship nerve repair product Remplir in Hong Kong.
Ballard Mining (ASX:BM1) secures $20.6m to fund next work phase at fully permitted Mt Ida gold project north of Menzies in WA.
Star Minerals (ASX:SMS) raises $1.5 million in a placement to fuel drilling and mining at the Tumblegum South gold project in WA.
American Uranium (ASX:AMU) appoints Petrotek to lead hydrogeological testing at its Lo Herma ISR project in Wyoming.
Trading halts
Aeris Resources (ASX:AIS) – cap raise
CurveBeam AI (ASX:CVB) – material contracts with Chinese partner
Golden Horse Minerals (ASX:GHM) – cap raise
KGL Resources (ASX:KGL) – cap raise
L1 Group (ASX:L1G) – cap raise
Xstate Resources (ASX:XST) – cap raise
Key Petroleum (ASX:KEY) – price query
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
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