Rise and Shine: Everything you need to know before the ASX opens

Good morning! Here’s everything you need to know before the ASX flings open its doors and begins trading today.

Everything you need to know before the ASX opens. Pic: Getty Images.

Good morning everyone and welcome to Rise and Shine on Friday, July 18, 2025. Here’s what you should know before the ASX opens today…

At 7am AEST, ASX futures were up 0.5%, pointing to a strong finish to the trading week.

Let’s unpack what went down while we were asleep...

Wall Street’s new records

Wall Street closed the curtains on Thursday with fresh highs.

The S&P 500 rose 0.54% to a fresh record, its ninth all-time high this year. The Nasdaq climbed 0.74%, and the Dow wasn’t far behind, also up 0.52%.

STOCK INDICES	Value	Change
ASX 200 (previous day)	8,639	0.90%
S&P 500	6,297	0.54%
Dow Jones	44,484	0.52%
Nasdaq Comp	20,884	0.74%
Euro Stoxx 50	5,377	1.49%
UK FTSE	8,973	0.52%
German DAX	24,371	1.51%
French CAC	7,822	1.29%

The engine behind it was a combination of better-than-expected US retail sales, falling jobless claims, and strong corporate earnings.

Retail sales jumped 0.6% in June, smashing expectations of a meagre 0.1% gain.

US jobless claims fell for the fifth straight week to 221,000, the lowest in three months.

Meanwhile, the stock stars came out to shine last night. Nvidia added 1%, pushing its market cap towards a gobsmacking US$4.25 trillion.

Taiwan Semiconductor posted record profits, pushing chip stocks higher.

But the real headliner was Netflix, which rose 2% after blowing past Wall Street’s expectations.

The streaming giant reported US$11.1 billion in revenue and earnings of US$7.19 a share, handily beating forecasts.

Trump’s Crypto Week ends with a win

Crypto finally had its day in the sun.

The House passed a long-awaited stablecoin bill, sending it to Trump’s desk.

This follows weeks of political ping-pong, infighting, and what Trump dubbed “crypto week”, his latest push to make the US the “crypto capital of the world.”

The bill lays down the first proper guardrails for stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to traditional assets like the US dollar.

Two other bills - one on broader digital asset market structure and one banning central bank digital currencies - are still stuck in the Senate sausage machine.

Graphite gets the tariff hammer

In the latest salvo of the US-China minerals scuffle, the US Commerce Department slapped a brutal 93.5% anti-dumping tariff on Chinese graphite imports, the black stuff that keeps EV batteries humming.

Once you factor in existing duties, total tariffs now sit at a painful 160%. That’s a serious cost blowout for automakers.

“That basically wipes out profits for one or two entire quarters,” said Sam Adham from CRU Group.

The move escalates an already-tense supply chain war, following Beijing’s earlier export curbs on critical minerals.

And finally...

Locally, all eyes will be on BHP (ASX:BHP), which is due to drop its quarterly ops review around 8.30am AEST.

Investors will be watching closely for production volumes and cost updates across iron ore, copper and energy.

And tonight at 10.30pm AEST, the US drops June housing starts and the University of Michigan’s initial consumer sentiment index.

The latter is Wall Street’s favourite “vibe check” on how US households are feeling.

Commodity/forex/crypto market prices

Price (US)	Move
Gold:	$3,338.70	-0.25%
Silver:	$38.14	0.60%
Iron ore:	$97.18	0.12%
Nickel:	$15,046.00	0.47%
Copper:	$10,937.00	-0.35%
Zinc:	$2,740.30	1.30%
Lithium carbonate 99.5% Min China Spot:	$8,500	2.5%
Oil (WTI):	$67.61	1.85%
Oil (Brent):	$69.60	1.58%
AUD/USD:	$0.6488	0.35%
Bitcoin:	$119,846	0.94%

What got you talking

Also in the news…

Health Check: Immuron (ASX:IMC) shares bust out for a ‘run’ on strong Travelan sales.

Sovereign risk may scare off some investors but don't get it twisted, West Africa could be the most exciting place to back gold miners.

ASX listed neighbours of MP Materials have struck gold after the US miner inked a US$500m rare earths deal with tech giant Apple.

TRADING HALTS

Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) – cap raise
Horizon Gold (ASX:HRN) – cap raise
Ordell Minerals (ASX:ORD) – cap raise
RareX (ASX:REE) – cap raise
Renegade Exploration (ASX:RNX) – cap raise
Solara Minerals (ASX:SLA) – proposed acquisition

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Locksley 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.