Top 10 at 11: ASX edges higher as Trump-Musk spat escalates

The ASX rose 0.04pc in early trading, supported by gains in the Energy sector as erupting Musk-Trump tensions drove Wall Street lower.

Wall Street fell overnight as tensions between Elon Musk and US President Trump erupted into public mudslinging. Pic: Getty Images.

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.

US-China trade talks advance

US President Trump says he’s accepted an invitation to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in China after the two discussed trade between their respective countries in a formal phone conversation.

On Truth Social, the US President said the call resulted in a “positive conclusion for both countries” that had resolved questions surrounding the trade of rare earths.

The Chinese government’s take on the call was a little less enthusiastic, stating that “The US side should take a realistic view of the progress made and withdraw the negative measures imposed on China”.

On an ordinary day, news the two economic giants were closer to normalising trade relations would have boosted US markets.

Not today.

Elon-Trump relationship goes up in flames

It’s the break-up we all saw coming.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s relationship has very publicly turned sour in recent days, with the Tesla CEO claiming Trump couldn’t have won the presidential election without his help, and Trump in turn threatening to withdraw government contracts for SpaceX and Tesla.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts. I was always surprised that Biden didn’t do it,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Musk responded by threatening to decommission the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which brought stranded International Space Station astronauts home just weeks ago.

“In light of the President’s statement about cancellation of my government contracts, SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately,” he said.

Tesla’s stock tanked fairly dramatically, plunging more than 14%. It’s now down almost 25% for the year to date.

The Elon-Trump spat was enough to unsettle US markets, which all fell. The S&P500 dipped 0.5%, the Dow 0.3% and the Nasdaq shed 0.8%.

ASX opens marginally higher

Despite falls on Wall Street overnight, the ASX has nudged up slightly in the first hour of trade, adding 3 points or about 0.04% as of about 10:30 am AEST.

A 0.7% uptick in the oil price overnight has provided some support for the Energy sector, which is up 1% at time of writing.

The ASX 200 Resources index is also climbing, adding 0.33%, but gold stocks are dragging once again in response to a falling gold price, down 0.63%.

Fridays don’t tend to be particularly energetic days of trading on average, and with six sectors down and five up, the market could go either way.

WINNERS

Code	Name	Last	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
WC1	Westcobarmetals	0.028	87%	28953985	$3,110,692
LOC	Locatetechnologies	0.15	36%	521762	$24,886,036
BMO	Bastion Minerals	0.002	33%	52142513	$1,355,441
GMN	Gold Mountain Ltd	0.002	33%	526889	$8,429,639
QXR	Qx Resources Limited	0.004	33%	583144	$3,930,987
SRN	Surefire Rescs NL	0.002	33%	1042535	$3,729,668
MEM	Memphasys Ltd	0.006	33%	778755	$8,926,191
IS3	I Synergy Group Ltd	0.004	33%	150000	$1,502,290
EDE	Eden Inv Ltd	0.0025	25%	610676	$8,219,762
PIL	Peppermint Inv Ltd	0.0025	25%	204939	$4,552,180

In the news...

West Cobar Metals (ASX:WC1) has snapped up the Mystique gold project in the Fraser Range province of WA, right next door to Rumble Resources’ (ASX:RTR) Themis prospect. RTR hit gold mineralisation of up to 4m at 22.2 g/t gold from 20 metres of depth at Themis, just 250 metres to the north of Mystique.

LAGGARDS

Code	Name	Last	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
TEG	Triangle Energy Ltd	0.002	-33%	204832	$6,267,702
KNB	Koonenberrygold	0.043	-31%	10415895	$63,530,934
HLX	Helix Resources	0.0015	-25%	594904	$6,728,387
ENT	Enterprise Metals	0.002	-20%	1	$2,945,793
OVT	Ovanti Limited	0.002	-20%	9636	$6,983,788
FBR	FBR Ltd	0.005	-17%	341440	$34,136,713
HHR	Hartshead Resources	0.006	-14%	947158	$19,660,775
TYX	Tyranna Res Ltd	0.003	-14%	13331	$11,509,489
HFR	Highfield Res Ltd	0.105	-13%	108105	$56,889,245
OLL	Openlearning	0.015	-12%	117617	$8,205,469

In the news...

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

Originally published as Top 10 at 11: ASX edges higher as Trump-Musk spat escalates