Top 10 at 11: ASX wobbles as quarterlies come thick and fast

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.

Unsettled open to trade

We’re in the thick of quarterly reporting season now, and the ASX 200 is struggling to find its footing in the first hour of trade, dipping by 0.40%.

We’ve already seen updates from Medibank (ASX:MPL), Cedar Woods (ASX:CWP), Ansell (ASX:ANN), Capricorn Metals (ASX:CMM), Woolworths (ASX:WOW), Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) and Nick Scali (ASX:NCK).

Only three of our 11 sectors are in the green at time of writing, as traders pause to absorb a flood of new guidance, corrections and forward strategies.

On top of the usual reporting season chaos, it may be worth looking out for some potential wins in uranium stocks today.

The White House announced it would invest over US$80 billion in nuclear reactors as part of its strategy to revive the US domestic nuclear energy industry.

Westinghouse Electric will be providing the reactors in an investment structure that could offer the US government an 8% stake in the company once all is said and done.

Meanwhile, Lynas (ASX:LYC) announced a $180 million investment into a heavy rare earths plant in Malaysia, supplied by feedstock from both its Mt Weld mine in WA and ionic clays in the South East Asian nation. It plans to be producing samarium, one of the heavy rare earths placed on an export control list by China by April 2026. Lynas shares fell 1.5%.

Gold futures continued to slide, now at a three-week low at US$3972 an ounce.

Similar corrections have historically lasted about two months, so it’ll be interesting to see when the gold price finds its new support point.

On the other hand, copper has risen to near all-time highs at US$11038 per tonne as the US-China trade deal fuels optimism and Anglo American warns copper production at its Collahuasi mine in Chile will be lower than expected by at least 60,000 tonnes.

SMALL CAP WINNERS

In the news…

Whitebark Energy (ASX:WBE) has identified new gas zones at the Warro Gas Field in WA with a technical review.

The review revealed several operational optimisations WBE can implement to access new dry gas zones that were previously supressed by water-bearing zones. The company is looking to reassess the gas play’s viability with a $750k placement to unlock a potential resource of 4.4–11.6 TCF of gas-in-place.

FIN Resources (ASX:FIN) is laying claim to the Cabin Lake gold project in Canada’s Northwest Territories, a fully permitted, drill-ready gold asset with near-surface potential.

Previous exploration at Cabin Lake hit broad, high-grade gold intersections up to 31.9m at 13.66g/t gold from 17.5m. FIN says the project sits within similar geology to the 3.3 Moz Lupin Gold Mine.

Doctor Care Anywhere (ASX:DOC) has notched a second quarter of positive cash generation, increasing consultations by 7.5% year-on-year and maintaining a $11 million cash position.

Management has also reaffirmed guidance for DOC’s medium-term goals, targeting a doubling of revenue over the next 3-5 years and a 15% EBITDA margin.

Ragusa Minerals (ASX:RAS) is also adding a North American project to its portfolio, snapping up the Purple Pansy manganese-gold project in Arizona. RAS will be seeking the same kind of government support South32’s (ASX:S32) Hermosa manganese project has enjoyed in southern Arizona.

There are currently no active manganese operations in the US, making the country fully reliant on imports of the critical metal at present. The US DoE and DoD are actively seeking to build out critical mineral capacity within the US to meet strategic requirements.

SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

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