Rise and Shine: Everything you need to know before the ASX opens

Good morning everyone and welcome to Rise and Shine on Wednesday, August 20, 2025. Here’s what you should know before the ASX opens today…

At 7am AEST, ASX futures were up 0.2%, pointing to a good start to Wednesday.

Here’s what happened last night while we tossed and turned….

Wall Street trips on tech

Overnight, the Dow barely moved the needle, up 0.02%, while the S&P lost 0.59% and the Nasdaq took a big hit, down 1.46%.

The selloff came from Big Tech. Nvidia slid 3.5%, trimming a monster run that’s still up more than 40% since April’s lows.

Palantir got smacked by 9%, its worst loss since March, while another chip stock AMD fell over 5%.

That’s what happens when the AI party gets too loud, someone always pulls the plug on the speakers.

But the night’s shock twist was Intel.

Long the underdog of semis, it leapt 7% after SoftBank lobbed in a US$2 billion stake after rumours the US government itself might buy a slice.

The stock now trades at 53x forward earnings, which is pretty much dot-com bubble territory.

“The stock looks incredibly expensive here,” said Wayne Kaufman from Phoenix Financial Services.

“That kind of multiple is a bet that the government will push Intel so hard on customers that it becomes a winner.”

Bitcoin bulls talk big

Bitcoin’s cooling off, drifting to around US$113,000 after last week’s joyride near US$124,500.

The hype machine’s still running though.

Bernstein reckons this bull run could stretch to US$150,000–$200,000 within a year, calling it a “long, exhausting” cycle that might peak in 2027.

But Glassnode’s James Check isn’t buying the champagne yet.

He called US$200K this year “very improbable” unless trading volumes actually show up.

What’s Trump been up to?

Trump’s been busy overnight, adding more weight to his China trade saga.

His administration expanded forced-labour scrutiny to imports of steel, copper and lithium from China, under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

It’s putting extra screws on Beijing just as Trump pushes to shrink the US trade deficit.

And finally…

Closer to home, investors have a busy plate.

Santos, James Hardie, and Magellan Financial are all dropping results today.

Across the pond, the RBNZ is expected to cut rates by 25bps to 3.0% at noon, with whispers they’ll go again to 2.75%.

Commodity/forex/crypto market prices

What got you talking

Also in the news…

Dr Boreham’s Crucible: In the shadow of giants, but can this biotech become a tumour-tackling titan?

BHP Results: Big Australian’s profit drops to lowest in five years, but dividend beats forecasts and copper grows.

Health Check: CSL (ASX:CSL) turns to a vaccines demerger in an ‘urgent’ get-fit drive.

Trading halts

Atomo Diagnostics (ASX:AT1) – material supply contract
Aspermont (ASX:ASP) – cap raise
BWE Drilling (ASX:BWE) – application to be removed from official list
Cannindah Resources (ASX:CAE) – cap raise
Castle Minerals (ASX:CDT) – transaction and cap raise
Desert Metals (ASX:DM1) – exploration results (Adzope Gold Project)
Hancock & Gore (ASX:HNG) – material acquisition
Kali Metals (ASX:KM1) – cap raise
Melbana Energy (ASX:MAY) – cap raise
Orbital Corporation (ASX:OEC) – cap raise
Prominence Energy (ASX:PRM) – acquisition of hydrogen & helium projects
WIN Metals (ASX:WIN) – cap raise

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Asra Minerals is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

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