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

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

At 7am. AEST Monday, ASX futures were down 0.1%, pointing to a modestly limp start for the local market.

Here’s what went down on Wall Street last Friday…

Markets breathe

Wall Street ended Friday on a high note as traders finally got a whiff of optimism from Washington.

The Dow added 0.52%, the S&P 500 lifted 0.53%, and the Nasdaq followed suit, up 0.52%.

All three closed the week in the green after a stretch that looked more like a heart monitor than a stock chart.

The mood turned when Donald Trump told reporters his China talks were “going well” and that his 100% tariffs wouldn’t be “sustainable” for either side.

Elsewhere, US regional banks also stopped bleeding, with Truist, Huntington, and Fifth Third reporting loan losses smaller than feared.

After the “cockroach” warning from JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon spooked everyone on Thursday, investors were relieved to find the pantry mostly clean, at least for now.

Still, the US government shutdown is dragging on, and federal paychecks are still frozen. History says that confidence fades fast when the bills don’t get paid.

Meanwhile, Oracle fell 7% after Envoy Air confirmed hackers had targeted its software.

The breach was traced to a critical zero-day in Oracle’s E-Business Suite (EBS) that the extortion group Cl0p exploited, affecting multiple organisations including Envoy Air (a subsidiary of American Airlines).

Gold goes parabolic

Gold slipped 1.5% on Friday but still clocked its biggest weekly gain since 2020, up nearly 7% in five days.

Prices hit an intraday high above US$4,380 on Friday before settling near US$4,250 at this time of writing, as traders scrambled for something that doesn’t default or get hacked.

As analyst Kyle Rodda put it, it’s been a “perfect storm for the yellow metal.”

Trade wars, bank worries, and Fed rate-cut dreams; gold is loving every bit of global dysfunction.

One of those weeks for crypto

Bitcoin ETFs stumbled and altcoins got hammered (some down 70%) after liquidity vanished.

“We saw this carnival of new filings and many providers thought it was party time… after the blow up, it will be even harder,” said crypto strategist, Ilan Solot.

The week ahead

This week’s calendar reads like a global stress test.

RBA Governor Michele Bullock speaks, along with her systems chief.

New Zealand drops its Q3 CPI, China reports GDP and activity data, Japan prints its September CPI, and the UK unloads inflation, retail sales, and PMI numbers.

The US has CPI, jobless claims, and a bunch of regional Fed surveys – assuming the shutdown doesn’t cancel the lot.

Commodity/forex/crypto market prices

What got you talking

Also in the news…

Austria serious about domestic gas and is pulling out all the stops.

Pivotal Metals (ASX:PVT) could be the ASX copper’s pound for pound champion.

PainChek (ASX:PCK) appoints new head of growth to drive Infant App scale-up.

Trading halts

• Bapcor (ASX:BAP) – pending trading update
• Lithium Universe (ASX:LU7) – cap raise
• Moho Resources (ASX:MOH) – cap raise
• Manuka Resources (ASX:MKR) – cap raise
• Tasman Resources (ASX:TAS) – cap raise
• Australian Strategic Materials (ASX:ASM) – cap raise
• Solis Minerals (ASX:SLM) – cap raise and project acquisition
• EV Resources (ASX:EVR) – pending acquisition
• Mount Gibson Iron (ASX:MGX) – exclusion zone at main pit due to rock fall
• Vectus Biosystems (ASX:VBS) – drug library acquisition

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Pivotal Metals, PainChek 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.