Lunch Wrap: ASX hangs in there as new tariff threats sink in
Info tech and gold stocks prop up struggling market
Trump sends out dozens of tariff threats ahead of extended deadline
ASX crawls along
After a rough start to the morning saw the ASX 200 slice 0.25% off the top, the Aussie bourse has staged a recovery to tip back into the green. Although… hang on… the grip is loosening as we type.
It's now about flat and seemingly just clinging on as of about 1.15pm AEST, which is actually nothing to sniff at considering Wall Street's abysmal performance overnight.
Retreating from all-time highs, the Nasdaq, S&P500 and Dow all lost about 0.8-0.9% overnight.
The mood turned decidedly sour as Trump let rip with the tariff rhetoric once again, pushing nine of the S&P 500's 11 sectors lower.
And the drama ramped up further as Elon Musk announced the formation of the new 'American Party' in direct response to the passing of Trump's latest tax bill. Tesla shares tumbled 6.8%.
While US tech stocks languished overnight – Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet and AMD all sank – it's the info tech sector providing a lot of the supporting strength for the ASX today.
Gold stocks are also flying as the tariffs push investors back into gold – the All Ords Gold index has surged 3% so far in trade today.
Taking a look at our big cap movers for the middle of the day, Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) has added 0.42%, ANZ (ASX:ANZ) is up 0.53% and NAB (ASX:NAB) has gained 0.54%.
BHP Group (ASX:BHP) has shed 1.15%, CSL (ASX:CSL) is down 0.54% and Westpac (ASX:WBC) is trending against the other banks, losing 0.34%.
Trump ramps up tariff threats after deadline extension
US markets had reached new all-time highs in the brief reprieve from tariff chaos over the last few months, but major indices fell almost a full percentage point each overnight as Trump turned the heat back up.
Writing to the leaders of dozens of countries, US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose new tariffs of between 25% and 40%.
South Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Kazakhstan and Tunisia are all staring down the barrel of unilateral 25% trade taxes.
It gets worse from there. South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, Serbia, Bangladesh and Cambodia will be slapped with tariffs of 30% to 36%, while goods from Laos and Myanmar will carry a 40% tariff.
"Please understand that the 25% number is far less than what is needed to eliminate the Trade Deficit disparity we have with your Country," Trump wrote in letters to Japan and South Korea, with similar language in other communications.
He also explicitly threatened to one-up any retaliation, stating any changes to tariffs on US goods would see the same percentage added to US trade taxes.
JP Morgan research predicts the average tariff rate will be a good bit lower than levels currently being threatened.
'Tariffs are a central pillar of this administration's economic agenda,' JP Morgan chief global economist Bruce Kasman said in June.
'The path and the distribution across countries and sectors are uncertain, but we continue to believe that the average effective tariff rate should eventually settle around 15-18%.'
ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for July 7 :
Security Description Last % Volume MktCap
AQC Auspaccoal Ltd 0.023 360% 26455906 $3,502,338
LNR Lanthanein Resources 0.002 167% 3084720 $3,161,454
HLX Helix Resources 0.002 100% 400100 $3,364,194
ATV Activeportgroupltd 0.015 67% 13925144 $6,182,794
ALR Altairminerals 0.003 50% 166733 $8,593,488
AXP AXP Energy Ltd 0.0015 50% 250000 $6,684,681
AM7 Arcadia Minerals 0.025 39% 40120 $2,112,902
AMS Atomos 0.004 33% 2561337 $3,645,055
QXR Qx Resources Limited 0.004 33% 2947669 $3,930,987
RDG Res Dev Group Ltd 0.009 29% 118403 $20,656,007
GT1 Greentechnology 0.027 29% 2302359 $9,978,571
SCP Scalare Partners 0.165 27% 43422 $5,438,553
RMI Resource Mining Corp 0.015 25% 93140 $8,813,440
1AD Adalta Limited 0.0025 25% 667400 $2,142,633
RLG Roolife Group Ltd 0.005 25% 911660 $6,371,125
TMK TMK Energy Limited 0.0025 25% 4176969 $20,444,766
VEN Vintage Energy 0.005 25% 2207274 $8,347,655
PIQ Proteomics Int Lab 0.49 24% 1285414 $64,590,968
AGY Argosy Minerals Ltd 0.031 19% 11634924 $37,853,944
SVY Stavely Minerals Ltd 0.013 18% 2260181 $5,984,463
ENX Enegex Limited 0.021 17% 25508 $6,856,597
CRR Critical Resources 0.0035 17% 1115050 $8,310,256
IPT Impact Minerals 0.007 17% 1120792 $23,959,980
GCM Green Critical Min 0.022 16% 20614126 $46,634,138
SUM Summitminerals 0.046 15% 2359785 $3,543,043
In the news…
Activeport (ASX:ATV) is preparing to roll out its network operations centre module at-scale for the first time after locking in a contract with India-based Ishan Netsol Pvt Ltd to provide network infrastructure automations.
The $375k deal will see ATV deploy its Fibre-to-the-Node orchestration to more than 12,000 buildings and 40+ data centres across India, tapping into a network across 100 locations and 85,000 customers in the country.
TMK Energy (ASX:TMK) has locked in a drilling contractor for the LF-07 production well at the Pilot Well project in Mongolia, contracting a larger, more powerful TXD200 drilling rig for the first time.
TMK intends to spud the LF-07 well in the second half of July, once Mongolia's annual holiday celebration, the Naadam festival, has ended.
Stavely Minerals (ASX:SVY) is taking a magnifying glass to its Western Victorian tenure in a fresh hunt for gold, taking advantage of the lucrative gold pricing environment to pivot from its usual copper targets.
The company has already put drill bit to ground at the Fairview North and South gold prospects, with an eye to investigate some breccia-hosted gold targets at the S41 prospect as well.
Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM) is looking to jump on the data centre bandwagon with its VHD graphite heatsink technology, which handily outperformed traditional materials in recent modelling.
With data centre microchips now requiring up to 300W of power, GCM's heat sink can maintain temperatures of 70-85 degrees Celsius at power loads of 300 to 400 watts.
ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS
Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for July 7 :
Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap
VFX Visionflex Group Ltd 0.001 -50% 447757 $6,735,721
EEL Enrg Elements Ltd 0.001 -33% 250101 $4,880,668
GMN Gold Mountain Ltd 0.002 -20% 884391 $14,049,398
MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.002 -20% 1071190 $1,946,223
DGR DGR Global Ltd 0.005 -17% 423719 $6,262,176
TON Triton Min Ltd 0.005 -17% 180000 $9,410,332
ZMI Zinc of Ireland NL 0.008 -16% 4792390 $5,529,102
HPC Thehydration 0.011 -15% 856893 $5,021,912
LML Lincoln Minerals 0.006 -14% 2418211 $14,717,988
LU7 Lithium Universe Ltd 0.006 -14% 43962 $6,551,857
WMG Western Mines 0.24 -14% 80634 $27,100,736
BPH BPH Energy Ltd 0.007 -13% 500000 $9,745,863
RNX Renegade Exploration 0.0035 -13% 157488 $5,153,454
WBE Whitebark Energy 0.0035 -13% 882608 $2,749,334
NUC Nuchev Limited 0.14 -13% 5263 $23,467,622
TOU Tlou Energy Ltd 0.021 -13% 479382 $31,166,024
MCE Matrix C & E Ltd 0.255 -12% 1305836 $64,905,242
RML Resolution Minerals 0.044 -12% 9997065 $32,910,914
DXN DXN Limited 0.059 -12% 696899 $20,013,144
ILT Iltani Resources Lim 0.19 -12% 222980 $14,177,272
LOC Locatetechnologies 0.155 -11% 740100 $40,657,564
SKY SKY Metals Ltd 0.056 -11% 356254 $44,774,299
MEM Memphasys Ltd 0.004 -11% 2181 $8,926,191
ADO Anteotech Ltd 0.0125 -11% 1057680 $37,874,205
BOA BOA Resources Ltd 0.018 -10% 55555 $2,467,057
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Argent BioPharma (ASX:RGT) has initiated supply of EU-GMP Cannabinoid API for epilepsy treatment at Slovenia's largest hospital.
Brookside Energy (ASX:BRK ) is preparing to commence a ~$1.92 million on-market share buy-back to support its upcoming New York Stock Exchange ADR listing.
Pure Hydrogen (ASX:PH2) is expecting a $1.1m R&D refund for FY25, which will assist in funding its goal of driving uptake of hydrogen and electric commercial vehicles.
Koonenberry Gold (ASX:KNB) has inked a 160% gain year to date on thick, high-grade gold hits at its Sunnyside prospect in New South Wales. But could it be sitting on another potential monster find?
StockTake: Buxton Resources (ASX:BUX) has kicked off its maiden drilling program at Centurion, testing gravity and magnetic anomalies.
Break it Down: Western Yilgarn (ASX:WYX) has announced a 16.5-million-tonne bauxite resource estimate for its Cardea-3 deposit in Western Australia.
LAST ORDERS
Star Minerals (ASX:SMS) has polished off a 2033-metre, 38-hole drilling program at the Tumbelgum South gold project, on time and within budget.
The infill drilling data from the program will be used for a resource estimate upgrade, and will also provide insights on structural targets to the northwest with potential to hold more gold mineralisation.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Star Minerals and Green Critical Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
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Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
Wall St steadies, investors recover from tariff shock
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The Advertiser
2 hours ago
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Japan and S.Korea seek to soften Trump tariff blow
Powerhouse Asian economies Japan and South Korea will try to negotiate with the US to soften the impact of sharply higher tariffs that President Donald Trump now plans to impose from the start of August. Trump ramped up his trade war again on Monday, telling 14 nations that they would face tariffs ranging from 25 per cent for countries including Japan and South Korea, to 40 per cent for Laos and Myanmar. However, with the start date pushed back to August 1, those countries are focusing on the new three-week window to press for an easier ride. Japan wanted concessions for its large automobile industry, top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on Tuesday. Akazawa said he held a 40-minute phone call with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in which the two agreed to actively continue negotiations. However, he said he would not sacrifice Japan's agriculture sector - a powerful political lobby domestically - for the sake of an early deal. South Korea said it planned to intensify trade talks over the coming weeks "to reach a mutually beneficial result". Asked if the latest deadline was firm, Trump replied on Monday: "I would say firm but not 100 per cent firm. "If they call up and they say we'd like to do something a different way, we're going to be open to that." Market reaction was muted as investors assessed the latest twist in the long-running trade saga. The European Union, which is the largest bilateral trade partner of the US, aimed to strike a deal before August 1 with negotiations focused on "rebalancing" and concessions for certain key export industries, a European source familiar with the negotiations said. Some EU sources had said late on Monday that the bloc was close to an agreement with the Trump administration. This could involve limited concessions to US baseline tariffs of 10 per cent for aircraft and parts, some medical equipment and spirits. Only two deals have been struck so far, with Britain and Vietnam. Washington and Beijing agreed to a trade framework in June, but with many details still unclear, traders and investors are watching to see if it unravels or leads to a lasting detente. Trump's trade tactics were making it hard for nations and businesses to plan with any certainty, the executive director of the United Nations trade agency said on Tuesday. "This move actually extends the period of uncertainty, undermining long-term investment and business contracts, and creating further uncertainty and instability," Pamela Coke-Hamilton, executive director of the International Trade Centre, told reporters in Geneva. Trump said the United States would impose tariffs of 25 per cent on goods from Tunisia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan, with levies of 30 per cent on South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, climbing to 32 per cent on Indonesia, 35 per cent on Serbia and Bangladesh, 36 per cent on Cambodia and Thailand and 40 per cent on Laos and Myanmar. A Bangladesh team in Washington was scheduled to have further trade talks on Wednesday, an official said. The US is the main export market for Bangladesh's ready-made garments industry, which accounts for more than 80 per cent of its export earnings and employs four million people. "This is absolutely shocking news for us," Mahmud Hasan Khan, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told Reuters on Tuesday. "We were really hoping the tariffs would be somewhere between 10-20 per cent. This will hurt our industry badly." Powerhouse Asian economies Japan and South Korea will try to negotiate with the US to soften the impact of sharply higher tariffs that President Donald Trump now plans to impose from the start of August. Trump ramped up his trade war again on Monday, telling 14 nations that they would face tariffs ranging from 25 per cent for countries including Japan and South Korea, to 40 per cent for Laos and Myanmar. However, with the start date pushed back to August 1, those countries are focusing on the new three-week window to press for an easier ride. Japan wanted concessions for its large automobile industry, top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on Tuesday. Akazawa said he held a 40-minute phone call with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in which the two agreed to actively continue negotiations. However, he said he would not sacrifice Japan's agriculture sector - a powerful political lobby domestically - for the sake of an early deal. South Korea said it planned to intensify trade talks over the coming weeks "to reach a mutually beneficial result". Asked if the latest deadline was firm, Trump replied on Monday: "I would say firm but not 100 per cent firm. "If they call up and they say we'd like to do something a different way, we're going to be open to that." Market reaction was muted as investors assessed the latest twist in the long-running trade saga. The European Union, which is the largest bilateral trade partner of the US, aimed to strike a deal before August 1 with negotiations focused on "rebalancing" and concessions for certain key export industries, a European source familiar with the negotiations said. Some EU sources had said late on Monday that the bloc was close to an agreement with the Trump administration. This could involve limited concessions to US baseline tariffs of 10 per cent for aircraft and parts, some medical equipment and spirits. Only two deals have been struck so far, with Britain and Vietnam. Washington and Beijing agreed to a trade framework in June, but with many details still unclear, traders and investors are watching to see if it unravels or leads to a lasting detente. Trump's trade tactics were making it hard for nations and businesses to plan with any certainty, the executive director of the United Nations trade agency said on Tuesday. "This move actually extends the period of uncertainty, undermining long-term investment and business contracts, and creating further uncertainty and instability," Pamela Coke-Hamilton, executive director of the International Trade Centre, told reporters in Geneva. Trump said the United States would impose tariffs of 25 per cent on goods from Tunisia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan, with levies of 30 per cent on South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, climbing to 32 per cent on Indonesia, 35 per cent on Serbia and Bangladesh, 36 per cent on Cambodia and Thailand and 40 per cent on Laos and Myanmar. A Bangladesh team in Washington was scheduled to have further trade talks on Wednesday, an official said. The US is the main export market for Bangladesh's ready-made garments industry, which accounts for more than 80 per cent of its export earnings and employs four million people. "This is absolutely shocking news for us," Mahmud Hasan Khan, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told Reuters on Tuesday. "We were really hoping the tariffs would be somewhere between 10-20 per cent. This will hurt our industry badly." Powerhouse Asian economies Japan and South Korea will try to negotiate with the US to soften the impact of sharply higher tariffs that President Donald Trump now plans to impose from the start of August. Trump ramped up his trade war again on Monday, telling 14 nations that they would face tariffs ranging from 25 per cent for countries including Japan and South Korea, to 40 per cent for Laos and Myanmar. However, with the start date pushed back to August 1, those countries are focusing on the new three-week window to press for an easier ride. Japan wanted concessions for its large automobile industry, top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on Tuesday. Akazawa said he held a 40-minute phone call with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in which the two agreed to actively continue negotiations. However, he said he would not sacrifice Japan's agriculture sector - a powerful political lobby domestically - for the sake of an early deal. South Korea said it planned to intensify trade talks over the coming weeks "to reach a mutually beneficial result". Asked if the latest deadline was firm, Trump replied on Monday: "I would say firm but not 100 per cent firm. "If they call up and they say we'd like to do something a different way, we're going to be open to that." Market reaction was muted as investors assessed the latest twist in the long-running trade saga. The European Union, which is the largest bilateral trade partner of the US, aimed to strike a deal before August 1 with negotiations focused on "rebalancing" and concessions for certain key export industries, a European source familiar with the negotiations said. Some EU sources had said late on Monday that the bloc was close to an agreement with the Trump administration. This could involve limited concessions to US baseline tariffs of 10 per cent for aircraft and parts, some medical equipment and spirits. Only two deals have been struck so far, with Britain and Vietnam. Washington and Beijing agreed to a trade framework in June, but with many details still unclear, traders and investors are watching to see if it unravels or leads to a lasting detente. Trump's trade tactics were making it hard for nations and businesses to plan with any certainty, the executive director of the United Nations trade agency said on Tuesday. "This move actually extends the period of uncertainty, undermining long-term investment and business contracts, and creating further uncertainty and instability," Pamela Coke-Hamilton, executive director of the International Trade Centre, told reporters in Geneva. Trump said the United States would impose tariffs of 25 per cent on goods from Tunisia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan, with levies of 30 per cent on South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, climbing to 32 per cent on Indonesia, 35 per cent on Serbia and Bangladesh, 36 per cent on Cambodia and Thailand and 40 per cent on Laos and Myanmar. A Bangladesh team in Washington was scheduled to have further trade talks on Wednesday, an official said. The US is the main export market for Bangladesh's ready-made garments industry, which accounts for more than 80 per cent of its export earnings and employs four million people. "This is absolutely shocking news for us," Mahmud Hasan Khan, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told Reuters on Tuesday. "We were really hoping the tariffs would be somewhere between 10-20 per cent. This will hurt our industry badly." Powerhouse Asian economies Japan and South Korea will try to negotiate with the US to soften the impact of sharply higher tariffs that President Donald Trump now plans to impose from the start of August. Trump ramped up his trade war again on Monday, telling 14 nations that they would face tariffs ranging from 25 per cent for countries including Japan and South Korea, to 40 per cent for Laos and Myanmar. However, with the start date pushed back to August 1, those countries are focusing on the new three-week window to press for an easier ride. Japan wanted concessions for its large automobile industry, top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on Tuesday. Akazawa said he held a 40-minute phone call with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in which the two agreed to actively continue negotiations. However, he said he would not sacrifice Japan's agriculture sector - a powerful political lobby domestically - for the sake of an early deal. South Korea said it planned to intensify trade talks over the coming weeks "to reach a mutually beneficial result". Asked if the latest deadline was firm, Trump replied on Monday: "I would say firm but not 100 per cent firm. "If they call up and they say we'd like to do something a different way, we're going to be open to that." Market reaction was muted as investors assessed the latest twist in the long-running trade saga. The European Union, which is the largest bilateral trade partner of the US, aimed to strike a deal before August 1 with negotiations focused on "rebalancing" and concessions for certain key export industries, a European source familiar with the negotiations said. Some EU sources had said late on Monday that the bloc was close to an agreement with the Trump administration. This could involve limited concessions to US baseline tariffs of 10 per cent for aircraft and parts, some medical equipment and spirits. Only two deals have been struck so far, with Britain and Vietnam. Washington and Beijing agreed to a trade framework in June, but with many details still unclear, traders and investors are watching to see if it unravels or leads to a lasting detente. Trump's trade tactics were making it hard for nations and businesses to plan with any certainty, the executive director of the United Nations trade agency said on Tuesday. "This move actually extends the period of uncertainty, undermining long-term investment and business contracts, and creating further uncertainty and instability," Pamela Coke-Hamilton, executive director of the International Trade Centre, told reporters in Geneva. Trump said the United States would impose tariffs of 25 per cent on goods from Tunisia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan, with levies of 30 per cent on South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, climbing to 32 per cent on Indonesia, 35 per cent on Serbia and Bangladesh, 36 per cent on Cambodia and Thailand and 40 per cent on Laos and Myanmar. A Bangladesh team in Washington was scheduled to have further trade talks on Wednesday, an official said. The US is the main export market for Bangladesh's ready-made garments industry, which accounts for more than 80 per cent of its export earnings and employs four million people. "This is absolutely shocking news for us," Mahmud Hasan Khan, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told Reuters on Tuesday. "We were really hoping the tariffs would be somewhere between 10-20 per cent. This will hurt our industry badly."


Perth Now
3 hours ago
- Perth Now
Terry Gilliam enjoys watching Donald Trump and Elon Musk argue 'like children in the playground'
Terry Gilliam has almost enjoyed seeing Donald Trump and Elon Musk "go at each other like two children in the playground". The President of the United States and his former friend fell out recently over a proposed spending bill, with the pair taking shots at each other over the past few weeks. Monty Python star Terry told Deadline: "I'm almost finding it enjoyable to listen to Trump and Musk go at each other like two children in the playground. "It's the world's richest man and the world's most powerful man behaving like that." Just this week, the 78-year-old commander-in-chief hit out at his former friend and advisor after the tech mogul declared his intention to start his own political party, the America Party. Although Terry, AGE, admitted it's "fascinating", he did take aim at the way the Trump administration is trying to tackle immigration. He added: "That's kind of fascinating and entertaining, and I think the idea of pushing all those people out of California, in all of America, that's the workforce folks, it isn't going to give more jobs to Americans. "We need immigrants. The same thing happened when Britain left Europe." The filmmaker - who was born in Minnesota, grew up in Los Angeles and later became a naturalised British citizied in 1968 - insisted he has no intention of living in the US again, having formally renounced his citizenship in 2006. He said: "I haven't been back to [live in] America since whenever it was, and I don't intend to. "I think America is in a very difficult position now because Trump and company are quite extraordinary. "On the other hand, he may actually succeed where other people didn't, in a strange way. It's like Richard Nixon, you know, brought about the rapprochement with China." Over the weekend, Tesla boss Musk revealed his plans to set up a political party to give people "back [their] freedom". He wrote on X, which he owns : 'By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it! When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste + graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. 'Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.' The president fired back on his own Truth Social platform: 'I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely 'off the rails,' essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks. "He even wants to start a Third Political Party, despite the fact that they have never succeeded in the United States."