Top 10 at 11: Biotech and rare earth stocks in the news as US-China trade war escalates

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 10:15, once trading kicks-off in earnest.

In brief, this is what the markets have been up to this morning.

The ASX has had another reversal of fortunes after notching a more than 2% gain yesterday, plummeting almost 1.7% in the first hour of trading as the trade war escalates between the US and China.

Trump’s tariff bonanza doesn’t look set to end anytime soon – the White House is poised to slap an astounding 104% tariff on all Chinese imports Wednesday US time, or later this evening, after Beijing refused to back down from its own retaliatory tariffs.

Despite rallying sharply early in the trading session – almost 4% each for the Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P500 – the major US indices ended the day firmly in the red, leaving the Nasdaq down 2.2%, the S&P 500 1.6% and the Dow Jones 0.8%.

The US NFIB small business optimism index fell from 100.7 in February to 97.4 in March, now below the 51-year average of 98.

“The implementation of new policy priorities has heightened the level of uncertainty among small business owners over the past few months,” NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg said.

“Small business owners have scaled back expectations on sales growth as they better understand how these rearrangements might impact them.”

The story was quite different in Europe, as investors fled to safer stocks in defensive sectors, lifting both the FTSE300 and the London-based FTSE100 2.7%.

Back home, here’s what ASX stocks have been up to…

WINNERS

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Making news this morning…

Osteopore (ASX:OSX), a 3D-printed biomimetic and bioresorbable implant company, has secured market approvals for its custom orthopaedic and cranial implants in Europe. The company has already secured an exclusive distribution agreement with Zimmer Biomet to supply implants to the European market.

Owner of online marketplaces Redbubble and TeePublic, Articore Group (ASX:ATG) has secured a new investment from Jencay Capital Pty Ltd, an Australian investment fund that has purchased 5.09% or just under 14.5 million shares in ATG in total.

With rare earths and critical minerals on the rise, Golden Deeps (ASX:GED) has identified very high-grade gallium of up to 538 g/t in historical underground channel sampling and drilling results at the Nosib prospect in Namibia. Gallium’s price has increased 221.6% since 2020, currently sitting at about $959 per kilogram.

LAGGARDS

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