Top 10 at 11: Market plummets as Wall Street reverses course

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.

September data dashes rate cut hopes

The market has been in free fall this morning, down more than 130 points or 1.57% in the first half hour and finding very little support.

Every single sector and index is bleeding across the board.

None of the sectors are looking particularly steady, but traditionally defensive options like consumer staples and telecoms aren’t taking quite as much damage.

The hasty and broad-based retreat comes in response to a similar bloodletting on Wall Street.

September’s delayed employment numbers in the US dashed hopes of a looming interest rate cut last night.

The US economy added 119,000 jobs despite unemployment rising 0.1%, slashing predictions of another US Fed rate this year cut to just 40%.

The Dow fell 0.8%, the Nasdaq 2.2% and the S&P500 1.6%.

Materials is squarely in the crossfire (-2.97%), as gold slid 0.6% to US$4080 an ounce and copper slipped 1% overnight.

Iron ore also ticked down 0.1% to US$104.24 a tonne, while crude fell as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy agreed to work on a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine.

Brent tipped down 0.2% to US$63.38 a barrel of Brent.

Just 11 stocks are rising on the main index in the first hour, while 176 are falling.

The market has already given up all of its gains from yesterday, on track to have lost 2.51% over the trading week.

It’s looking mighty uncomfortable out there, certainly not a day for hasty decisions.

SMALL CAP WINNERS

In the news…

Redcastle Resources (ASX:RC1) is preparing to expedite early gold production at the Redcastle project with grade control drilling at the Redcastle Reef (RR) deposit, working towards an updated mineral resource estimate.

Management says it’s a key step in de-risking the Queen Alexandra deposit (73,000 tonnes at 3.83g/t gold), the Redcastle project’s core resource, just 700 metres away.

Adding the RR deposit’s resource to the mining plan offers flexibility in terms of feedstock options, milling efficiency and opportunities for concurrent mining.

SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

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