Lunch Wrap: Gold thuds hard with a ‘healthy correction’; and which small cap just rocketed… erm, 4900pc?

• ASX cools off as gold and silver crack – Morgans tells us why
• Woodside fires as miners crumble
• Pinnacle explodes on Japan play

The ASX slipped around 0.84% by Wednesday lunchtime in the east, easing back after Tuesday’s high-flying session that had pushed the index to its loftiest level in months.

Overnight, Wall Street nudged toward fresh highs, while Apple inched closer to a US$4 trillion market cap.

Gold’s dumps… Morgans analyst weighs in

Gold, the market’s shiny obsession, lost some of its halo overnight. Which is probably something of an understatement.

Prices crashed by 6% – the steepest daily drop in 12 years, and then silver followed with a 7% nosedive.

The slump came down to a mix of strong US data and good old-fashioned profit-taking.

Investors who’d been piling in through gold ETFs (almost $1 billion worth this year) suddenly found themselves part of a stampede for the exit.

Major stocks like Newmont, Bellevue Gold, and Ramelius all copped double-digit losses, while the VanEck Gold Bullion ETF (ASX:NUGG) slid 7% this morning.

The irony is that just last week, analysts were tripping over each other to call US$5000 gold.

HSBC, Global X, Bank of America, everyone was on the same hymn sheet.

But there’s logic in the selloff. When you’ve had a nine-week rally driven by retail FOMO and central bank buying, gravity was bound to make a cameo.

A near 6% fall barely dents gold’s year-to-date gain, still more than 50%.

Ross Bennett, a research analyst at Morgans, views the overnight move to be a “healthy correction” following a phenomenal week of performance, not the end of the bull cycle.

“The fundamental setup – high debt burdens, fiscal expansion, negative real rates and de-dollarisation trends – remains supportive to gold,” Bennett said.

“Expect short-term volatility as markets adjust to shifting Fed expectations, but we continue to see upside on a six to 12-month horizon.

“For equities, we think overnight movements represent a short-term sentiment reset rather than a structural shift.”

On the ASX, the rout dragged the entire materials sector down with it, as Newmont Corporation (ASX:NEM) and Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) cratered 10%.

Energy, meanwhile, was this morning’s leader, led by Woodside Energy Group (ASX:WDS), which jumped 3% after lifting its full-year production guidance.

The oil major pumped out 50.8 million barrels of oil equivalent for the quarter, a touch higher than Q2, and boosted guidance to 192–197 million barrels for the year.

ASX LEADERS

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

ASF Group (ASX:AFA) surged 4,900% after its subsidiary, ASF Capital, officially registered with AUSTRAC as a Digital Currency Exchange provider, effective from 16 October 2025 to 2028.

The move expands its reach into regulated digital-asset services, sitting alongside its existing financial services licence. It allows ASF to facilitate compliant exchanges between fiat and digital currencies under Australia’s anti-money-laundering laws.

ASF said it’s finalising readiness before launch, with all KYC and monitoring systems in place, and is working with tech and institutional partners to build secure trading solutions for wholesale clients.

Pancontinental Energy (ASX:PCL) has identified two new oil prospects (Phoebe West and Northern Channel) within its PEL 87 project offshore Namibia, adding to the already promising Saturn Complex.

Phoebe West is estimated to hold up to 779 million barrels (net to PCL), while Northern Channel could contain as much as 1.3 billion barrels, lifting total high-case prospective resources for PEL 87 to 6.1 billion barrels.

Tyranna Resources (ASX:TYX) has secured a 75% stake in the Chinguar Gold Project in central Angola, covering a massive 3,342km² area about 50km northeast of Huambo.

The project hosts multiple artisanal (“garimpo”) gold sites along major fault zones, with both sediment- and laterite-hosted gold indicating potential for deeper, primary deposits.

Tyranna will be the first to explore the region using modern techniques, supported by new government geological data and strong infrastructure access via the Lobito Corridor.

ASX LAGGARDS

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

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

VHM (ASX:VHM) has secured up to A$75m from Export Finance Australia to advance its Goschen rare earths project in Victoria, building on a recent US EXIM LOI for up to US$200m.

Non-bank lender MONEYME (ASX:MME) has extended its flagship Autopay car loan product to private vehicle sales.

Gallium has joined rare earths in Trump’s critical mineral wishlist – what a time for Western Yilgarn (ASX:WYX) to commence exploration at its Ida Holmes Junction gallium project in WA.

CONNEQT Health (ASX:CQT) is ramping up production of its FDA-cleared Pulse arterial health monitor after reporting rapid US sales growth and strong consumer demand.

Theta Gold Mines (ASX:TGM) has raised another US$6m in addition to a US$34m debt and equity raise announced earlier this month to fund construction of its TGME gold project in South Africa.

Latitude 66 (ASX:LAT) has entered a binding agreement to test Iondrive’s (ASX:ION) Deep Eutectic Solvent technology on cobalt concentrates from its KSB project in Finland.

Belararox (ASX:BRX) has kicked off a fresh field season at its TMT project in Argentina’s Andes.

LAST ORDERS

Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) has begun extensional drilling at the Lord Byron deposit, targeting mine life extensions. BTR is following up on an intersection of 32m at 7.16g/t gold from 69m, looking to grow Byron’s 900,000-ounce resource.

Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY) is preparing to put a newly obtained diamond drilling rig to work at the El Campo prospect, part of the Mojave REE project in California. LKY is targeting an outcrop that produced rock chip of up to 1.21% total rare earths and 3.19% neodymium-praseodymium.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Brightstar Resources and Locksley 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.