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

Good morning everyone and welcome to Rise and Shine on Tuesday, September 23, 2025. Here’s what you should know before the ASX opens today…

At 7am AEST Tuesday, ASX futures were 0.2% higher, which points to a modestly upbeat start to the session.

Here’s what happened overnight…

Wall Street’s new records, Mag 7 flex

The S&P 500 chalked up yet another record, inching closer to 6700 points, while the Nasdaq flirted with 22,800 before settling higher.

Never mind that Julian Emanuel at Evercore ISI warned “odds that a bubble has begun are increasing.”

Nvidia did what Nvidia does, ripped another 4% higher after flagging plans to pour as much as US$100 billion into OpenAI, not in cash or stock, but in the form of data centres, GPUs and infrastructure.

Apple also surged more than 4%, dragging its market cap toward US$4 trillion. It’s now the last of the Mag 7 to claw back all of this year’s losses, which should make the bulls feel vindicated.

Tesla shares were up 2%, climbing to their highest point in 2025 after Elon Musk and Donald Trump appeared together at the memorial service for conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Musk and Trump, who’d had a public falling-out, shook hands and sat briefly together, juicing Tesla’s stock more than any balance-sheet ever could.

ASML got a Morgan Stanley upgrade and reminded everyone that you can’t build an AI empire without its EUV machines.

Gold and silver soar

Gold punched through US$3,700 an ounce as gold ETFs saw their biggest inflows in three years.

Silver, the understudy that never quite gets top billing, also climbed to its highest level in 14 years.

It’s no coincidence that bullion is on its best annual run since the late 70s, when inflation was out of control.

With the Fed is cutting rates and promising more, the real yield equation is back in gold’s corner.

“Technicals are looking pretty strong, and expectations are rising for deeper rate cuts,” said Soni Kumari at ANZ.

Bitcoin falls hard

Crypto had the opposite night. Bitcoin slipped to US$112k as more than US$1.5 billion in leveraged longs were liquidated.

The optimists call it “nervous consolidation,” the cynics call it exhaustion.

Ethereum dropped harder, and Solana also copped it hard.

Analyst Rachael Lucas summed it with her own brand of weary optimism.

“The fireworks from earlier this year have fizzled… sentiment is more ‘nervous optimism’ than outright fear.”

And finally

Looking ahead, today’s agenda is packed with PMI readings across Europe, the UK and the US.

Then there’s PCE, the Fed’s pet inflation measure. If it comes in soft, the Street will immediately start betting on another cut in October.

And, of course, Jerome Powell is due to speak.

Expect the usual tightrope walk: rates will stay lower for longer, but don’t call it a pivot.

Commodity/forex/crypto market prices

What got you talking

Also in the news…

Gold City: M&A potential looms large in Forrestania gold belt as TG Metals locks in $4m placement.

Health Check: Starpharma (ASX:SPL) revs up on Big Pharma deal worth up to $855m.

Why global majors are in the corner of these ASX PGE explorers.

Has silver finally crossed the threshold to fuel project development?

Trading halts

Altamin (ASX:AZI) – cap raise
Gateway Mining (ASX:GML) – cap raise
Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM) – underwriting of options
Indiana Resources (ASX:IDA) – exploration results & ASX query
Kula Gold (ASX:KGD) – divestment & cap raise
Metal Bank (ASX:MBK) – cap raise
RareX (ASX:REE) – funding arrangements
RooLife Group (ASX:RLG) – response to ASX queries
Swift Networks (ASX:SW1) – cap raise
Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) – acquisition & placement

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While TG Metals 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.