Top 10 at 11: Market slips on weak lead from Wall Street as Fed remains uncertain

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.

Market mood darkens as Fed signals uncertainty

While Wall Street indices finished fairly flat overnight, the equal-weighted S&P500 slid 1.12%.

It’s a reflection of how massive the major tech stocks have gotten in terms of weighting on the S&P500, accounting for a whopping 36.6% of the total market.

While the Mag 7 continues to climb, the markets will follow, but it’s all beginning to look a bit like a stool with two legs.

The US Federal Reserve cut rates by 25 basis points as expected, but spooked investors with an insistence that another interest rate cut in December was “not a foregone conclusion”.

With the US government shutdown entering day 26, the Fed is flying pretty much blind in terms of real data.

Back at home, the ASX 200 has retreated in the first hour of trade, down 0.39% as of about 10:30 AEDT with nine of 11 sectors down.

Only the energy and materials sectors are moving against the tide, gaining on macro support.

Oil prices continued to climb in the US session as crude inventories fell versus market expectations. Brent is trading up 0.8% to US$64.92 a barrel at present.

Copper also reached an all-time high overnight, trading up 1.3% to US$11,183.5 per tonne.

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In the news…

PhosCo (ASX:PHO) has added almost $3 million to its coffers ahead of a bankable feasibility study for the Gasaat phosphate project in Tunisia.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has granted PHO $1.8 million through its subsidiary Himilco, while PHO managing director Taz Aldaoud also exercised 21.4 million options, investing a further $1.1 million in the company.

The EBRD will be issued 150 million options exercisable at 5 cents in return for the investment.

CurveBeam AI (ASX:CVB) is expanding into Chinese markets via a joint venture with Shandong WeiYing Intelligent Medical Technology Co., Ltd.

The binding 10-year agreement covers sales, marketing, distribution, manufacturing, regulatory approval and IP for CurveBeam’s weight bearing CT and AI technology in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. CVB will receive upfront and milestone payments as well as royalties on sales.

Straker (ASX:STG) has renewed and extended its partnership with IBM for an additional three years. The contract involves deploying Straker’s AI-driven solutions across IBM’s global operations. There are already 10,000 users using Straker’s AI driven Slack translation application.

STG says the deal is worth about US$16.1 million over its three-year term, although revenue is based on customer usage and so will vary from period to period.

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