Top 10 at 11: Choppy open to trade as Wall Street retreats

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.

Technology stocks on the run

With Wall Street investors finally waking up to the ballooning Mag 7 valuations and top-heavy market – the Mag 7 accounts for more than a third of the S&P500 by market value – our own tech stocks have been caught in the crossfire.

All major US indices lost at least 1% overnight, with the Nasdaq shedding 1.9%. The S&P500 has also drifted below its 20-day moving average.

Back at home, it’s been a choppy start to the day. Seven of 11 sectors are up, led mostly by our defensive sectors, while info tech has shed 1.28%.

The market is hovering right around neutral, up just six points or 0.07% in the first hour.

Some disappointing numbers out of Macquarie (ASX:MQG) certainly aren’t helping matters – the stock has fallen 4.87% at time of writing, approaching a six-month low.

The bank missed net profit after tax and CET1 ratio predictions by 10.3% and 110 basis points respectively.

Gold prices stayed just about steady overnight, while copper retreated marginally (-0.4%), iron ore tipped slightly higher (+0.3%) and crude also edged lower (-0.2%) to US$63.38 a barrel of Brent.

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In the news…

Red Sky Energy (ASX:ROG) is wrapping up the Yarrow 1 well at the Innamincka Dome project in South Australia’s Cooper Basin. ROG expects the well to double the current production levels at Innamincka.

Joint venture partner and project operator Santos (ASX:STO) is handling the completion program – the JV expects to produce first gas by November 18, 2025.

Lithium Universe (ASX:LU7) has made fresh progress in advancing its solar cell recycling technology, executing a memorandum of understanding with leading Taiwanese photovoltaic recycling firm RePV Tech.

RePV will supply recycled silicon wafers for testing LU7’s MJHT and JESE silver extraction systems. The two companies are targeting very high-grade silver recoveries of 95.95%.

At current prices, LU7 estimates each discarded module could contain up to $56 worth of silver, with waste volumes set to exceed 70 million tonnes by 2040.

Etherstack (ASX:ESK) has quietly announced a $2.5 million contract with the Australian government for defence communications services. The details are scarce, but management says it’ll release more substantive guidance over the coming week. ESK has secured $15 million in government-contracted business since 2021.

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