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

Good morning everyone and welcome to Rise and Shine on Wednesday, November 26, 2025. Here’s what you should know before the ASX opens today…

At 7am AEST Wednesday, ASX futures were up about 1%, pointing to more gains to start the day.

Here’s what went down overnight on Wall Street….

Wall Street rallies again

New York pushed higher again, building on the previous session’s bounce like a market that’s convinced the worst is over.

The Dow gained 1.36%, the S&P 500 climbed 0.78%, and the Nasdaq added 0.43%, with tech stocks dragging the whole index higher.

Alphabet is now up more than 12% over five sessions and flirting with that psychologically juicy US$4 trillion valuation.

The stock has been driven by growing belief that Google’s in-house AI chips – its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) – are finally stepping into the same conversation as Nvidia’s GPUs.

The trigger was a report that Meta is in talks to spend billions on Google’s AI chips for its future data centres.

Nvidia fell 3% on the news, but this isn’t Nvidia losing the AI war. This is simply the market realising that the spoils are now being divided.

Apple, meanwhile, cruised to fresh record territory after research from Counterpoint showed the latest iPhone range is driving double-digit year-on-year sales growth in both the US and China  – two markets where Apple lives or dies.

Zoom popped 12% as it successfully rebranded itself from “pandemic hangover app” into an AI-enabled platform – and, to its credit, actually backed it with guidance and contract wins.

And to data, US consumer confidence slid 6.8 points, the sharpest fall since April, and retail sales grew just 0.2% in September, missing expectations.

Is Hassett the next Fed’s chair?

Just as equities were finding their groove, a Bloomberg report poured fresh petrol on the fire.

Kevin Hassett, currently White House National Economic Council director, is now seen as frontrunner to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair next year.

Hassett is viewed as someone far more sympathetic to Trump’s desire for lower rates, and the market absolutely loved that.

Right now, traders are already pricing in more than 80% probability of a December quarter-point cut.

Oil dips heavily on Ukraine-Russia news

ASX oil stocks could be under pressure as Brent slipped 1.7% to US$62.32 a barrel and WTI fell under US$58 – with both now down around 5% over the past five sessions.

The key catalyst was a report that Ukraine has agreed to the terms of a revised peace framework being pushed by US officials.

Talks will apparently be taking place soon in Abu Dhabi, with pressure mounting on Moscow to consider it.

No signed deal, just progress toward a structure that could eventually lead to one.

First monthly CPI today

Back home, eyes turn to the first monthly CPI print at 11.30am AEDT, with NAB tipping headline inflation at 3.6% year-on-year.

Now here’s where the market psychology gets awkward.

3.6% isn’t “inflation solved”. It’s not even “job done, RBA can relax”.

For the RBA, that number sits right in the uncomfortable middle – not hot enough to justify another scare campaign, but still way too sticky to declare victory.

Across the ditch, the RBNZ is expected to cut by 25 basis points at 12pm AEDT, reinforcing that global easing drumbeat that’s already propping up equity multiples.

Commodity/forex/crypto market prices

What got you talking

Also in the news…

Explorers Podcast: Osmond Resources’ (ASX:OSM) first Orión hole shows world multi-commodity class.

Health Check: It’s quarterly report ‘Liberation Day’ for Aroa (ASX:ARX) after a bumper first half result.

Hedley Widdup thinks these are the best gold developer names on the ASX.

Explorers Podcast: Adavale Resources (ASX:ADD) chases gold growth in one of Australia’s hottest mineral belts.

Trading halts

Alvo Minerals (ASX:ALV) – cap raise
BOA Resources (ASX:BOA) – acquisition + cap raise
BPM Minerals (ASX:BPM) – cap raise
Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO) – cap raise
Lightning Minerals (ASX:L1M) – cap raise
Pathkey.AI (ASX:PKY) – cap raise
Whitefield Income (ASX:WHI) – cap raise
Zenith Minerals (ASX:ZNC) – awaiting assay results

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Patronus Resources, Osmond Resources, Aroa and Adavale 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.