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

Good morning everyone and welcome to Rise and Shine on Tuesday, October 21, 2025. Here’s what you should know before the ASX opens today…

At 7am AEST Tuesday, ASX futures were up 0.5%, hinting at what analysts like to call a bright start to the day.

Here’s what happened overnight while you were sleeping…

Wall Street rallies hard

Overnight, the Dow rose 1.12%, the S&P gained 1.07%, and the Nasdaq leapt 1.37%.

According to Bloomberg, about 85% of S&P 500 companies have beaten profit expectations, which sounds impressive until you remember analysts have spent six months lowering the bar.

Apple hit an all-time high at US$260 after Loop Capital upgraded Apple from “Hold” to “Buy” and hiked the price target from US$226 to US$315.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s cloud, the database half the internet depends on, caught fire.

AWS went down, and with it, half of modern civilisation.

Canva, Roblox, Snapchat, banking apps, even Fortnite – all toast for a few hours. And yet Amazon’s share price rose 1.6%.

Trump, Albo and Rudd

Over in Washington, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was busy smiling his way through one of the strangest political courtships in years.

Donald Trump, a man who once accused Australia of freeloading on defence, now can’t stop calling us “strategic partners.”

The pair inked a US$13 billion critical minerals and rare-earths framework designed to loosen China’s chokehold on the industry.

The White House called it “a model for global supply chain cooperation”, which basically means “We finally found someone else willing to dig stuff for us.”

It’s a blockbuster announcement on paper.

Both countries will chip in around a billion US dollars each over the next six months to accelerate mining and processing projects.

The Alcoa-Sojitz Gallium Recovery Project in WA will churn out 10% of global gallium, key for semiconductors and defence tech, while Arafura’s Nolans project in the NT could pump 5% of global rare earths.

And… it’s never boring when our ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, is in the room.

Trump reportedly looked him in the eye and said, “Well, I don’t like you either, and I probably never will.”

Which, in diplomatic terms, means: “Please enjoy the rest of your career in the corner.”

Gold can’t stop flexing

Gold is hovering near record highs again.

Normally, with trade tensions easing and shutdown talks progressing, gold would cool off.

But this isn’t a normal market. Traders are buying gold like they’ve seen the future.

“There’s nothing but buyers,” said Ole Hansen at Saxo Bank.

And finally…

Back in Australia, there’s no shortage of action.

BHP, South32, and HUB24 drop quarterly results today, giving everyone from day traders to fund managers something to argue about.

And, RBA Assistant Governor Brad Jones will be speaking at the Derivatives Forum in Sydney at 10:45am AEST.

Commodity/forex/crypto market prices

What got you talking

Also in the news…

Health Check: No sweat as Botanix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:BOT) boosts quarterly revenue and reduces cash burn.

Rare earth miners line up as critical minerals take centre stage in Washington.

Mooners and Shakers: ‘Uptober’? More like Shocktober … but Bitcoin yawns, consolidates.

Kristie Batten: Northern Star-backed PolarX (ASX:PXX) accelerating US gold and copper hunt.

Trading halts

Alice Queen Limited (ASX:AQX) – cap raise
Bryah Resources Limited (ASX:BYH) – cap raise
BlinkLab Limited (ASX:BB1) – pending company announcement
Broken Hill Mines Limited (ASX:BHM) – cap raise
Credit Clear Limited (ASX:CCR) – cap raise
Energy Transition Minerals Ltd (ASX:ETM) – acquisition update
Gorilla Gold Mines Ltd (ASX:GG8) – cap raise
Nordic Resources Ltd (ASX:NNL) – cap raise
Westar Resources Ltd (ASX:WSR) – cap raise

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While PolarX 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.