Top 10 at 11: ASX eyes fresh heights after Wall Street closes at all-time highs

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.

Tariff framework fuels market gains

The US and China managed to reach an agreement on a new trade framework on Sunday, a full six days ahead of deadline.

Traders breathed a sigh of relief. Wall Street indices has pushed to new closing highs on Friday, just shy of some fresh intraday peaks.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says fresh tariffs are now off the table, and China is expected to push back its new rare earth minerals licensing regime by a year.

It’s likely we’ll see some dips in rare earth stocks on that particular news, but the strategic requirement for supply outside of China won’t be going anywhere soon.

The ASX 200 lifted 0.52% in the first half hour of trade, riding 46.7 points higher with 9 of 11 sectors on the up.

Financials, industrial and info tech are leading gains, with some support from the ASX 200 Banks index and lesser contributions from the XGD Goldies and All Tech.

A slew of gold mining companies will be releasing their quarterly reports today.

Look out for production numbers and forward guidance from Greatland (ASX:GGP), Ramelius (ASX:RMS), Sandfire (ASX:SFR), Pantoro (ASX:PNR) and Perseus (ASX:PRU).

The gold price is still finding its feet after a white-hot rally saw it gain about 10% in a single month. Gold futures are currently trading at about US$4082 an ounce, a 1.3% drop from Friday’s session.

Oil is moving in the other direction, ticking up marginally from last week to hit US$66.37 a barrel of Brent crude.

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In the news…

Lodestar Minerals (ASX:LSR) is throwing its hat into the US rare earths ring, moving to acquire the Virgin Mountain heavy rare earth project in Arizona from Globex Nevada Inc.

The project is prospective for valuable heavy rare earth elements including dysprosium, terbium and lutetium, plus highly sought-after magnet rare earths neodymium and praseodymium.

LSR has also brought Coraline Blaud onto its board as an executive director. She brings 10 years of experience in the resources sector, with a strong track record in exploration management, strategic development, and corporate governance.

BPH Global (ASX:BP8) has inked a commercial framework agreement with the Indonesian provincial government for the supply of seaweed and a bio-stimulant manufacturing project.

The government’s operating company, Permuda Panca Raya (PPR Maluku) will act as both a seaweed supplier and bio-stimulant partner over a two-year term, providing between 1-200 tonnes of seaweed a month.

BP8 will also collaborate with PPR Maluku on establishing a seaweed-based bio-stimulant manufacturing facility in Maluku.

“With Perumda Panca Raya’s regional networks and institutional support, we can accelerate the establishment of our planned bio-stimulant manufacturing facility and drive sustainable growth in both agricultural and marine sectors,” BP8 MD Matthew Leonard said.

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