Closing Bell: Confusion reigns after split Fed decision, but resources tick ASX higher
Confusion reigned after the US Fed was split down the middle on its latest rate cut. The ASX traded sideways for much of the arvo, despite resources strength.
ASX retreats from +0.6% gain to lift just 0.15%
6 of 11 sectors lower, 106 stocks rising vs 83 falling
Materials touches new intraday high on broad commodity strength
Divided Fed comments confuse markets
The US Federal Reserve cut rates as expected, giving Wall Street a stiff bounce in the immediate aftermath. The mid-point of the US cash rate now sits at 3.6%.
The Fed's comments, however, were a little less clear-cut. Seven members are pushing for no more trims in 2026, while the other eight reckon they want two.
The central bank's dot plot was also looking a little murky, but its current modelling is predicting one 25bp cut in 2026 and one in 2027.
Chair Jerome Powell said an additional rate cut in 2026 would be hard to justify, but that the Fed is in a good position to wait for more data and see how things play out.
“It is really tariffs that are causing most of the inflation overshoot,” Powell said. “We do think of those as likely… to be a one-time price increase.”
The ASX 200 appeared satisfied with the cut, rising 0.6% on some breakout moves in the material sector.
Unfortunately, general confusion set in through the day, with the market briefly dipping into negative territory in the afternoon.
By day’s end, the ASX 200 added just 0.15% or 12.6 points, having gained 5.31% YTD.
ASX rotates into commodities and banks
With so much uncertainty flying about, Aussie traders went for the old faithfuls – resources and banking stocks.
Commodities have been on a tear recently.
Which ones? Actually most of them.
Gold, copper, silver, uranium, lithium, rare earths and iron ore have all had strong showings in recent months.
The wider materials sector surged 1.75% intraday to a new all-time high on all the tailwinds.
It ended up giving up much of that by day’s end, but a bullish mood is certainly forming.
AMP (ASX:AMP) climbed 1.2% on reaching an ‘in principle’ agreement to settle a class action lawsuit over historical insurance advice and super fees for $29 million.
Origin Energy (ASX:ORG) ticked up 0.22% on an $80 million cash injection to further expand what will be the biggest battery installation in Australia at its Eraring coal power generator.
Intelligent Monitoring (ASX:IMB) surged 9.17% on plans to acquire BlueSky Holdco – the investment company, not the social media platform – for $39 million (NZ$45 million) in cash.
IMB reckons the buy will add about $10 million to its overall EBITDA, as well as an EPS gain of about 28.3%.
Myer (ASX:MYR) made similar moves, up 10.24% after offering up a positive trading update at its latest AGM.
MYR added 3% year-on-year to its total sales in the first 19 weeks of FY26 and reiterated its focus on reducing business costs.
Two new resource stocks also IPO’d today; Moonlight Resources (ASX:ML8) and Exultant Mining (ASX:10X).
ML8 secured $10m to drive its gold, rare earths and uranium portfolio, while 10X pulled in an oversubscribed $5 million to advance its silver, copper, gold and lithium assets across NSW and WA.
ASX Leaders
Today’s best performing stocks (including small caps):
| Code | Name | Last | % Change | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HCF | HG High Conviction | 0.037 | 106% | 1068221 | $349,317 |
| CT1 | Constellation Tech | 0.002 | 100% | 250000 | $1,474,734 |
| MEU | Marmota Limited | 0.1225 | 73% | 42059362 | $83,801,711 |
| AOK | Australian Oil. | 0.0025 | 25% | 2072000 | $2,504,457 |
| MRQ | Mrg Metals Limited | 0.005 | 25% | 2207370 | $10,906,075 |
| TEG | Triangle Energy Ltd | 0.0025 | 25% | 68242 | $4,402,468 |
| TYX | Tyranna Res Ltd | 0.005 | 25% | 3000000 | $13,416,609 |
| AXI | Axiom Properties | 0.016 | 23% | 2170391 | $6,468,978 |
| ALV | Alvomin | 0.081 | 23% | 15003710 | $15,851,947 |
| STV | Swift TV Ltd | 0.011 | 22% | 590000 | $10,127,916 |
| HMX | Hammer Metals Ltd | 0.029 | 21% | 1525077 | $21,426,209 |
| BLU | Blue Energy Limited | 0.006 | 20% | 39418423 | $15,059,868 |
| BNL | Blue Star Helium Ltd | 0.006 | 20% | 800194 | $18,014,426 |
| CTN | Catalina Resources | 0.003 | 20% | 25142501 | $7,157,548 |
| MGU | Magnum Mining & Exp | 0.006 | 20% | 9671493 | $14,020,635 |
| KKO | Kinetiko Energy Ltd | 0.067 | 20% | 68739 | $86,025,372 |
| TSK | Tusker Minerals | 0.13 | 18% | 479957 | $10,753,301 |
| LKE | Lake Resources | 0.093 | 18% | 64364978 | $179,528,039 |
| ID8 | Identitii Limited | 0.007 | 17% | 238624 | $4,938,081 |
| PLC | Premier1 Lithium Ltd | 0.007 | 17% | 3369769 | $4,826,558 |
| RNT | Rent.Com.Au Limited | 0.055 | 15% | 1038574 | $52,674,026 |
| CHM | Chimeric Therapeutic | 0.004 | 14% | 5035437 | $12,747,477 |
| PER | Percheron | 0.008 | 14% | 37679 | $7,612,063 |
| PL9 | Prairie Lithium Ltd | 0.008 | 14% | 18952324 | $39,062,201 |
| FEX | Fenix Resources Ltd | 0.495 | 14% | 3644023 | $323,846,422 |
In the news…
Marmota (ASX:MEU) is celebrating a round of bonanza gold hits at the Greenewood gold discovery, part of the Gawler Craton gold project in SA.
MEU’s assays peaked at 109g/t gold from near-surface, also hitting nine intersections of more than 20g/t and 28 of more than 10g/t gold.
It’s looking like the company has hit a nearly-continuous high-grade gold system at a particularly shallow depth – most of the results occur within just 67 metres from surface.
MRG Metals (ASX:MRQ) has had similar drilling success, although MRQ was hunting for heavy minerals at its Adriano Rare Earth project in Mozambique.
Individual samples returned up to 9.56% total heavy minerals, while 83 of 125 samples graded above 4% and 26 above 6%.
Management reckons it could be the makings of a “genuine district-scale rare earth alluvial corridor”.
Triangle Energy (ASX:TEG) has launched legal proceedings against a subsidiary of Echelon Energy, alleging the company failed to meet its obligations in a farm-in agreement over the L7 permit in the Perth Basin.
TEG is asking for $3.84 million in damages for breaching the contract, looking to recoup the costs of a third well on the licence.
Axiom Properties (ASX:AXI) has inked a partnership with Ray White Avi Khan Group, gaining exposure to 3000 new properties under management.
Axiom has already rolled out its Rental Advance and Pay-in-12 products, and intends to follow with Settlement Advance, Commission Advance and a customised MyHomeVault (MHV) platform next quarter.
ASX Laggards
Today’s worst performing stocks (including small caps):
| Code | Name | Price | % Change | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MTL | Mantle Minerals Ltd | 0.001 | -33% | 5537423 | $10,849,672 |
| 1TT | Thrive Tribe Tech | 0.0015 | -25% | 450663 | $843,923 |
| GGE | Grand Gulf Energy | 0.0015 | -25% | 1013900 | $5,640,850 |
| NES | Nelson Resources. | 0.006 | -25% | 22919587 | $17,572,755 |
| SRN | Surefire Rescs NL | 0.0015 | -25% | 4080280 | $8,051,219 |
| MIO | Macarthur Minerals | 0.02 | -23% | 1251591 | $8,277,104 |
| FBR | FBR Ltd | 0.004 | -20% | 4561672 | $33,434,863 |
| MOH | Moho Resources | 0.008 | -20% | 1295247 | $10,145,704 |
| N1H | N1 Holdings Ltd | 0.105 | -19% | 5000 | $11,447,224 |
| NOR | Norwood Systems Ltd. | 0.013 | -19% | 1372004 | $8,254,842 |
| LML | Lincoln Minerals | 0.009 | -18% | 6430275 | $28,501,339 |
| SPQ | Superior Resources | 0.009 | -18% | 4268457 | $26,113,810 |
| A11 | Atlantic Lithium | 0.165 | -15% | 1604369 | $145,962,492 |
| AHN | Athena Resources | 0.005 | -17% | 77417 | $13,595,742 |
| AYT | Austin Metals Ltd | 0.005 | -17% | 1905000 | $9,505,148 |
| ERA | Energy Resources | 0.0025 | -17% | 297168 | $1,216,188,722 |
| FTI | Fortifai Ltd | 0.185 | -16% | 270026 | $32,561,730 |
| CQT | Conneqt Health Ltd | 0.051 | -15% | 560499 | $34,209,368 |
| TRU | Truscreen | 0.0145 | -15% | 474528 | $12,704,531 |
| X2M | X2M Connect Limited | 0.009 | -14% | 676599 | $10,637,947 |
| NFL | Norfolkmetalslimited | 0.12 | -14% | 1278137 | $11,205,730 |
| TEM | Tempest Minerals | 0.006 | -14% | 2162275 | $7,713,134 |
| PAT | Patriot Resourcesltd | 0.049 | -14% | 1586905 | $9,406,280 |
| PDI | Predictive Disc Ltd | 0.61 | -13% | 12657502 | $1,851,404,030 |
| TR8 | Tarrina Resources | 0.0225 | -13% | 4484709 | $9,089,150 |
In Case You Missed It
Auravelle Metals’ (ASX:AUV) drilling at the Crown gold project has revealed large zones of supergene gold.
Legacy Minerals (ASX:LGM) has approval to drill at the White Rock prospect, where new targets have been identified.
Neurizon Therapeutics’ (ASX:NUZ) drug candidate NUZ-001 cleared by the US FDA to enter prestigious HEALEY ALS Platform trial.
Ovanti’s (ASX:OVT) US subsidiary Ovanti US Inc inked a deal to make New York-based The Ticketing Co one of its anchor merchants for its BNPL offering Flote.
Valley Bore demonstrates hallmarks of a high-grade find as Alchemy Resources (ASX:ALY) hits even better results in its latest assays.
Cannindah Resources (ASX:CAE) identified a new near-surface copper-gold zone beside the Cannindah Breccia in central Queensland.
Kingsland Minerals (ASX:KNG) prepares for spherical graphite tests for battery anode applications at its Leliyn graphite project in NT.
Norfolk Metals (ASX:NFL) has confirmed the presence of copper mineralisation in drilling at the Carmen project in Chile.
Peregrine Gold (ASX:PGD) expands Rocklea gold project footprint through acquisition of further tenements.
Trajan Group (ASX:TRJ) senior vice president of workflow solutions unpacks how the company’s capital equipment segment has grown.
Ore Resources (ASX:OR3) has raised $7.5 million in a placement to power its gold-focused exploration in WA.
Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) has increased resources at its Menzies project, positioning it to be the next gold production hub.
Prairie Lithium (ASX:PL9) inks offtake agreement for all Phase 1 crystallite output from its proof-of-concept plant.
EBR Systems (ASX:EBR) has tightened the moat around its WiSE heart device with a fresh batch of global patents.
Hillgrove Resources (ASX:HGO) wrapped up its 2025 drilling campaign at the Kanmantoo copper project on a high note, paving the way for a busy 2026.
Atomic Eagle’s (ASX:AEU) drilling at Chisebuka has produced broad, shallow uranium zones, reaffirming its potential following a 15-year exploration hiatus.
Last Orders
Moonlight Resources (ASX:ML8) has officially listed to the ASX under the ticker ML8, having raised $10 million in its IPO. Read more about the company and its assets here.
Trading halts
Boab Metals (ASX:BML) – cap raise
Medallion Metals (ASX:MM8) – cap raise
Nova Minerals (ASX:NVA) – proposed share placement
Pure Resources (ASX:PR1) – cap raise
Resources & Energy Group (ASX:REZ) – cap raise
Taruga Minerals (ASX:TAR) – cap raise + material project acquisition
Metallium (ASX:MTM) – "voluntary suspension is requested as the company is not in a position to make an announcement regarding the material collaboration and associated funding arrangements with a United States partner"
Winsome Resources (ASX:WR1) – failure to respond to ASX price query
Burgundy Diamond Mines (ASX:BDM) – pending funding package
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Moonlight Resources is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
Originally published as Closing Bell: Confusion reigns after split Fed decision, but resources tick ASX higher
