Top 10 at 11: ASX rises on US rate cuts as tech companies take full advantage

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.

ASX on the up

The ASX has risen 0.60% in the first half hour of trade, lifting 52.8 points with 9 of 11 sectors in the green.

An interest rate cut in the US yesterday has bumped rate-sensitive sectors higher, offering momentum for healthcare, info tech, utilities and real estate.

The major banks are having a bit of a look-in too, and the All-Ord Gold index has tipped up slightly despite a 1.1% fall in gold futures overnight to US$3678 an ounce.

Brent crude oil is currently trading at US$67.45 a barrel after sliding about 0.8% overnight.

The mysterious land of magical internet money has been faring quite well, too. Bitcoin is currently swapping non-fungible hands for about US$17,400 at time of writing, up about 1%. Ethereum and other top 10 crypto pals are also in the green.

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In the news…

Swift Networks (ASX:SW1) has inked a deal with one of Australia’s largest aged care providers, Opal Healthcare, to integrate Swift TV into its proprietary systems.

Opal will install Swift TV’s all-in-one entertainment package in 562 screens across four of its residential care communities. Opal owns 142 care facilities servicing 13,000 residents.

NoviqTech (ASX:NVQ) has launched a beta version of its subsidiary’s quantum intelligence products in the form of QI Provenance and QI AI, the first step in launching NVQ’s hybrid quantum-classical ecosystem.

The company says its QI Provenance product enables tamper-proof digital credentials and asset provenance through an API, empowering businesses to embed verifiable trust into their systems, while it’s request-only QI AI is an agentic model designed for natural language interaction.

Kula Gold (ASX:KGD) hit visible gold in diamond drilling at the Mt Palmer gold project, intersecting sulphides as well.

The drill core revealed “strong showings of native visible gold” in five intersections, ranging from 31.4m to 36.45m downhole. KGD has sent the drill core to the lab for assay to determine the true grade of the hits.

1414 Degrees (ASX:14D) has advanced its thermal energy storage SiBrick solution a step further toward mass production, melting one type of brick at 1100°C and the other at 1400°C.

14D says both variants maintained their chemical and physical integrity through hundreds of melting–solidification cycles.

The company is developing the bricks to power its camel-cap-titled SiPHyR reactor, enabling low-cost hydrogen production using methane pyrolysis.

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