Top 10 at 11: Strong start to ASX trading as global markets largely shrug off tariff talk

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.

Global markets stay the course

Global markets are in wait-and-see mode once again.

Last week Trump re-ignited uncertainty with a hike to steel tariffs and a new salvo of complaints against China’s alleged violations of the April tariff truce, but traders have been far less reactive to this latest bit of noise.

US trade was subdued but steady, looking somewhat like a village who was tired of hearing “Wolf!” shouted in their ear every other week.

Nvidia (+1.7%) and Meta (3.6%) led the Nasdaq up, adding 0.7%.

News Meta would be moving to an artificial intelligence strategy to fully automate its ads cut advertising stocks. Omnicon shares fell 4%, WPP 2.63% and Interpublic 3.22%.

Tesla also shed 1.1% after monthly sales fell in Portugal, Denmark and Sweden.

The S&P 500 gained 0.4% and the Dow managed to tick up 0.1%.

Europe had a quiet trading session overall. Automakers followed their US cousins down 2.1%, but the HCOB Eurozone PMI rose to 49.4 in May, marking a 33-month high.

The Euro FTSE 300 dipped just 0.1% while the UK FTSE 100 edged marginally higher, up less than 0.1%.

US steel stocks surge on tariff hike; Automakers suffer

US President Trump’s plans to double steel and aluminium tariffs from 25% to 50% lifted US steel stocks even as the move undercut automakers.

The VanEck Steel ETF jumped 3%. Cleveland-Cliffs surged 23.16%, Steel Dynamics 10.32% and Nucor 10.10%.

Just ten days ago, Trump flagged he would approve an investment from Nippon Steel into the US steel manufacturing sector, claiming it would add US$14 billion to the economy.

The details have been incredibly light – or just absent altogether – but the Administration has implied it will retain de facto veto rights over company decisions.

“I have to approve the final deal with Nippon and we haven’t seen that final deal yet, but they’ve made a very big commitment and it’s a very big investment,” Trump told reporters.

US automotive manufacturers were on short end of the stick, as investors anticipate higher input costs from rising steel prices.

Ford Motor shed 3.85%, General Motors 3.87% and Stellantis stumbled 4.96%.

Strong open for ASX

The ASX has started the day with a strong upward momentum, gaining 0.65% as of about 10.30am AEST with 9 of 11 sectors firmly in the green.

There’s also plenty of movement in the sub-indices. The All Ords Gold has surged more than 3.5%, followed up by the ASX 200 Resources, adding 1.5%, and the Small Ords, climbing 1% as well.

The Banks and Tech indices are also making gains, adding about 0.5% and 0.4% respectively.

The Aussie bourse is showing broad signs of strength this morning, setting the stage for a positive day of trading.

WINNERS

In the news…

Eclipse Metals (ASX:EPM) has fielded a rare earth resource of 89Mt at a grade of 6363 parts per million total rare earth oxide at the Grønnedal REE deposit in Greenland, part of the Ivigtût project.

The new resource is 70-times larger than its previous resource estimate and positions the deposit among the highest-grade rare earth element deposits globally. The resource also has high concentrations of valuable magnet and heavy rare earth elements, including neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium.

Sunshine Metals (ASX:SHN) has hit bonanza-grade gold mineralisation at the Liontown prospect, with results up to 10 metres at 31.91g/t gold from 41 metres of depth.

With a smaller hit of 2 metres at 121.5g/t gold in hand, SHN says the results demonstrate the historical gold mine still hosts high-grade gold mineralisation, reinforcing the company’s plans to pursue shallow oxide gold production.

LAGGARDS

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