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

Everything you need to know before the ASX opens. Pic: Getty Images

Good morning everyone and welcome to Rise and Shine on Monday, October 13, 2025. Here’s what you should know before the ASX opens today…

At 7 am AEST Thursday, ASX futures were down more than 0.7%, pointing to a less-than-optimal start to the day and trading week.

Here’s what happened on Friday. Cover your eyes…

Wall Street rocked – worst trading day since April

Just when things were starting to line up pretty well (if perhaps a little overheated)… the big, bloated orange one has done it again. Thanks a bunch, Donald. Just had to hog the headlines again, didn’t you? Maybe being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize had something to do with it.

In any case, Wall Street was paved a bloody red on Friday as US stocks took a beating after President Donald Trump threatened to turn the tariffs dial up to 11 on China.

The S&P 500 sank 2.7% in its worst day since April. The Dow Jones dropped 1.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite plunged 3.6%.

US stocks had been looking positive initially on Friday, until Trump took to Truth Social to inform the world he’s considering “a massive increase of tariffs” on Chinese imports.

Underlying this is the US government’s concern around restrictions China has placed on exports of its rare earths – which, as regular readers of Stockhead will be fully aware, are resources deemed critical for the manufacturing of popular consumer electronics, jet engines, military tech and more.

“We have been contacted by other Countries who are extremely angry at this great Trade hostility, which came out of nowhere,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that he believes “now there seems to be no reason” to meet with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, which had been scheduled as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea.

STOCK INDICES	Value	Change
ASX 200	8,958	-0.13%
S&P 500	6,553	-2.71%
Dow Jones	45,480	-1.90%
Nasdaq Comp	22,204	-3.56%
Russell 2000	2,395	-3.01%
Euro Stoxx 50	5,531	-1.68%
UK FTSE	9,427	-0.86%
German DAX	24,241	-1.50%
French CAC	7,918	-1.53%

Bitcoin’s new ‘safe haven’ status develops cracks (0r does it?)

If stocks were pummelled, then the crypto market was absolutely savaged. Waking up on Saturday in Australia, crypto portfolio checkers faces instantly turned a whiter shade of pale (true story). In just a few hours, some US$19.3 billion was wiped off the crypto market in the largest liquidation event that crazy market has ever endured.

Yep, bigger than the Covid crash, bigger than FTX. Nuts.

Okay, so the big dogs (Bitcoin and Ethereum) weren’t hit too badly comparatively speaking… but altcoins were brutalised in many cases with 30%, 40, 50, and in some instances 80 or 90% falls. The recovery is in process as this is typed, but it may take a moment.

There may be a silver lining here, however, in the form of Bitcoin – which, according to crypto chart watchers Wealth Mastery, “closed well above its last local low of $108k” despite being part of the “biggest liquidation event ever”.

And, news just in… BTC is actually making something of a recovery since we began typing all this – see chart below.

Gold bugs, meanwhile, are quite possibly smirking smugly somewhere as their real-deal safe haven narrative remains firmly intact and looking more solid than ever. Silver’s not looking too shabby, either.

But as for oil, the ramped-up Trump tariff threat sent prices of the black stuff dropping to a five-month low…

Commodity/forex/crypto market prices

	Price (US)	Move
Gold:	$4,015.59	1.02%
Silver:	$50.01	1.38%
Iron ore:	$105.74	0.84%
Nickel:	$15,215	-1.74%
Copper:	$9,596	-6.16%
Zinc:	$2,996	-0.72%
Lithium carbonate 99.5% Min China Spot:	$11,402	1.23%
Oil (WTI):	$58.90	-4.24%
Oil (Brent):	$62.73	-3.82%
AUD/USD:	$0.6474	0.82%
Bitcoin:	$114,937	3.62%