Top 10 at 11: ASX forges higher as gold jumps on latest Fed-Trump stoush

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.

Gold stocks rally as Trump threatens Fed

Trump has had another go at undermining the US Federal Reserve’s autonomy, attempting to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook on allegations she committed mortgage fraud.

If he’s successful, it would mean Trump’s personal appointees would have a 4-3 majority on the Fed board.

He appointed Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman in his first term, and nominated Stephen Miran to replace Adriana Kugler, who retired this month.

“President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so,” Cook said in an emailed statement.

“I will not resign.”

Gold edged higher in response, helped along by a weakening US dollar as expectations the Fed will lower interest rates in September grow.

Gold futures climbed 0.5% higher to US$3433 an ounce overnight and have edged up to US$3438.92 an ounce since.

The ASX All Ords Gold index has lifted 3.11% already this morning.

The ASX 200 itself has moved 0.22% higher in the first hour of trade, led by materials with 7 of 11 sectors in the green.

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In the news…

Basin Energy (ASX:BSN) is moving into the uranium and rare earths exploration space with the acquisition of three district-scale tenement packages in the prolific Mt Isa region of Queensland.

The early-stage projects offer three different models of mineralisation. The first is prospective for uranium, a paleochannel network adjacent to the Sybella uranium “hot” granite.

The second prospective target is also related to the Sybella discovery, a hard rock granite system with auger results of up to 5m at 1951 parts per million total rare earth oxide. The third is a sediment-hosted ionic clay rare earth target where soil sampling graded up to 653ppm TREO.

SiteMinder (ASX:SDR) had a solid growth of year in 2025, growing annualised recurring revenue 27.2% to $273.0m and total revenue 19.2% to $224.3m.

The hotel platform expanded by 5.6k properties, bringing its portfolio to 50.1k and marking the first year of positive annual underlying free cash flow, which came in at $4.7m compared to -$6.4m last year.

BCAL Diagnostics (ASX:BDX) has teamed up with Sonic Healthcare Australia to provide Australians with access to BDX’s blood-based cancer diagnostic test, BREASTEST plus.

The test – designed for women with dense breast tissue – will now be offered at 93 Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology collection centres in Sydney, with specimen pre-analytical processing to be handled by Melbourne Pathology in Melbourne.

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