Top 10 at 11: ASX smacked, but Trump spares Aussie exports

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 down almost 1%

The ASX copped a sharp slap first thing Friday morning, down 0.9% at the open on the back of a soft lead from Wall Street.

Aussie healthcare, banks and tech names were the ones taking it on the chin, no surprise really.

Banks don’t love uncertainty (especially with cross-border risk rising), and tech tends to move in sync with its American cousins, which fell overnight.

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Meanwhile, Australia has dodged a Trump bullet, at least for now, with the president deciding not to hike the 10% base tariff on Aussie goods.

The Albanese government breathed a sigh of relief after an executive order left us off the hit list.

Trump’s claiming our move to lift US beef restrictions was thanks to him, though Canberra insists it was just the end of a 10-year review, not an olive branch.

Either way, we’re still sitting on the 10% baseline.

WINNERS

In the news…

Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY) has locked in a heavily oversubscribed $5.3 million raise at $0.095 a share, with strong backing from institutional investors led by Tribeca Investment Partners.

The fresh funds will go into drilling high-grade antimony and rare earths at its Mojave project in California, progressing downstream processing in the US.

LKY says the raise is a big vote of confidence in its US critical minerals strategy, with more than a dozen new institutions joining the register. Settlement is expected around August 6, with the raise split across two tranches – one already approved, and one pending shareholder tick.

Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) has uncovered a new iron target called Halo at its Yalgoo project, sitting just 5km from its existing Remorse magnetite deposit.Recent fieldwork and historical rock chips, some grading as high as 62% Fe, point to strong potential for both magnetite and haematite across a 5km+ strike.

Halo shares key traits with Remorse, which already boasts a 63.5Mt inferred resource, high-grade metallurgy results, and an MOU with Mid-West GreenSteel.

LAGGARDS

Forrestania Resources (ASX:FRS) plans to issue 45.45 million performance rights to directors tied to ambitious project and market milestones, to keep execs aligned with shareholder value.

The proposed rights have performance hurdles to ensure any share price lift is real and sustained. FRS also flagged upcoming news from its Lady Lila and Ada Ann prospects, and says it’s actively assessing new WA opportunities.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Locksley Resources is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article. 

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