Top 10 at 11: ASX dives as Fed gives hawkish vibes

Morning, and welcome to Stockhead’s Top 10 (at 11… ish), highlighting the movers and shakers on the ASX in early-doors trading.

With the market opening at 10am sharp eastern time, the data is taken at 10.15am in the east, once trading kicks off in earnest.

In brief, this is what the market has been up to this morning.

Fed refuses to budge on interest rates

The ASX is following US indices lower after the US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell once again signalled the central bank was not ready to cut US interest rates. Well, not just yet anyway.

The ASX fell 0.45% in the first hour, down on 8 of 11 sectors with only info tech (+0.5%) showing any real signs of life this morning.

With the US labour market remaining ‘solid’ by Powell’s assessment and a September cut still in doubt, gold shed 0.8% overnight to US$3352.80 an ounce, then slid even further in trade today to US$3287.21 an ounce.

Oil continued to rise, ticking up another 1% to US$73.24 a barrel of Brent. Iron ore has also gained marginally, up just 0.1% to hover just beneath the US$100 tonne mark at US$99.07.

WINNERS

In the news…

Winchester Energy (ASX:WEL) has been reinstated to the ASX after clearing a regulatory hurdle by appointing two more non-executive directors and filling out the required three-person roster.

WEL is welcoming Jason Peterson, founder of CPS Capital Group, and David Wheeler, director and partner at boutique corporate advisory firm Pathways Corporate, to the board. The company is now seeking advice over a general meeting requirement.

Askari Metals (ASX:AS2) is preparing for a systematic exploration program targeting high-grade, shallow gold mineralisation across two major gold corridors at its Nejo gold and copper project.

AS2 will explore 10km of the Guliso Trend and 9km of the Guji-Gudeya Trend, home to the Soyoma, Dina, Chago, Chago South, Guji, Komto 1 and Komto 2 gold targets.

Rokeby Resources (ASX:RKB) had a solid quarter of exploration and corporate growth, welcoming a $380k investment from new major shareholder Tony Rovira alongside a $1.1m capital raise.

The money is funding a maiden drilling campaign just starting at the Hurricane gold project, which has produced bonanza grade rock chips of up to 69.5 g/t gold.

LAGGARDS

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.