Lunch Wrap: ASX smashes records to set new intraday high

• Broad gains across sectors push ASX to 9106.8 points, a new intraday high
• Gold, bank, real estate gains fuel strong momentum
• Unemployment spike doubles expectations of rate cut next month

After a shaky start to the morning, the ASX is absolutely flying. What started as a modest 0.2% uptick has ignited into a 1.29% surge.

The ASX 200 has smashed right through its previous intraday high of 9054 points, now at both an all-time and session high of 9106.8 as of about 12.35pm AEDT.

As mentioned in this morning’s Top 10, gold is still pushing to new highs around US$4221.64 an ounce while oil is plummeting to Covid-era levels.

Markets are about as certain as they can be – 97.8% – that the US Fed will cut rates at its meeting at the end of the month.

It’s all come together for a second day of powerful gains on the ASX 200 so far, with all sectors bar info tech bouncing higher.

Unemployment up, rate cut on the cards

Adding to the general risk-on sentiment, Australian unemployment jumped unexpectedly in September.

Economists expected about 20,000 more people to be employed in September. Instead, about 34,000 more people were looking for jobs.

That’s spiked unemployment from 4.2% to 4.5%, and sent analysts scrambling to adjust their RBA interest rate cut probabilities.

Markets were originally pricing only a 40% chance of a rate cut in November. That’s shot up to 80%, and traders can smell the cheaper cash on the horizon.

Rate-sensitive real estate stocks have been the biggest winners out of all the furore.

Goodman Group (ASX:GMG) gained 3.47% intraday, Stockland (ASX:SGP) 4.58% and Mirvac (ASX:MGR) 3.66%.

The banks are also running hot. Commonwealth (ASX:CBA) has climbed 2.13% and ANZ (ASX:ANZ) 2.19%, but Macquarie (ASX:MQG) is leading the pack, lifting 4.82% higher.

In other mid-cap news, Jumbo Interactive (ASX:JIN) is still hiking on its acquisition of UK-based Dream Car Giveaways. The stock is up 11.95% after adding about 20% yesterday.

Metallium (ASX:MTM) surged almost 17% after achieving a breakthrough in rare earth magnet recycling with its exclusively licensed Flash Joule Heating technology. The timing certainly couldn’t be better with China’s recent crackdown.

Bougainville Copper (ASX:BOC) jumped 12% after flagging it would seek a strategic partner for its Panguna project yesterday.

Finally, AMP (ASX:AMP) is up 8.8%. The bank’s assets under management lifted 3.6% to $159.5 billion in the third quarter, and net cashflows improved 60% period-on-period to hit $1.2 billion.

ASX LEADERS

Today’s best performing stocks (including small caps) intraday:

 In the news…

TrivarX (ASX:TRI) is moving to add the Stabl-Im IP and associated stable isotope cancer diagnostic IP from Nucleics Pty Ltd to its portfolio.

The technology is designed to provide safe imaging and monitoring of brain cancers through standard MRI using stable isotope labelling of replicating cells within the brain.

To fund the acquisition, TRI has secured commitments to raise $4.2 million in a share placement.

American West Metals (ASX:AW1) is also raising funds through a placement, targeting $7 million at an 18% premium to its 30-day VWAP.

The fresh capital will go to developing the West Desert project, home to a JORC resource containing indium, zinc, silver, copper and gold with potential for gallium and molybdenum to boot.

Peppermint Innovation (ASX:PIL) was slapped with a speeding ticket from the ASX yesterday. There’s a good chance PIL will avoid that today, having pointed to its quarterly report and August 13 announcement to explain the gains.

Peppermint reckons traders were just a little slow to understand the company’s recent direction. In August, PIL announced it had launched its InstaPay P2P ‘Sender and Receiver’ functionality on the bizmoto wallet with direct InstaPay integration. Seven banks signed up for the service, mostly operating out of the Philippines.

SQX Resources (ASX:SQX) has come out of a trading halt to spruik its acquisition of several gold and silver projects in North America. The new assets are prospective for a combination of bonanza-grade vein-hosted mineralisation as well as epithermal vein and breccia systems.

ASX LAGGARDS

Today’s worst performing stocks (including small caps) intraday:

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Indiana Resources (ASX:IDA) has hit up to 4m at 13g/t gold from 130m in RC drilling at Minos project within its Gawler Craton project in South Australia.

Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) will provide a briefing on its Gamma REE project ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s meeting with US President Donald Trump.

Everest Metals Corporation (ASX:EMC) has signed an MoU with Arlington Innovation Partners seeking to access US funding and partnerships for its Mt Edon critical minerals project in WA’s Mid-West.

Trenching by Cannindah Resources (ASX:CAE) at the Appletree and Dunno prospects in Queensland has returned ore-grade copper, gold and molybdenum.

LAST ORDERS

Godolphin Resources (ASX:GRL) is offloading its Gundagai project in an option agreement to Gilmore Minerals. GRL will receive $50,000 cash for the six-month option, with a further $150,000 on the cards should Gilmore acquire 100% of Gundagai’s tenements.

Odyssey Gold (ASX:ODY) has kicked off a 5000-metre reverse circulation program at the Tuckanarra gold project. The program will target resource definition and extensional drilling at the Highway deposit as well as further defining the new Cable Hangingwall vein.

Redcastle Resources (ASX:RC1) has acquired 72 square kilometres within the TBone Belt, part of WA’s Leonora region. The new claims directly adjoin RC1’s existing Redcastle project area within the Leonora Laverton greenstone belt.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Godolphin Resources, Odyssey Gold and Redcastle Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.