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

Good morning everyone and welcome to Rise and Shine on Wednesday, October 21, 2026. Here’s what you should know before the ASX opens today…

The S&P ASX 200 futures were up 0.4% at 7am AEDT this morning, pointing to a rebound after yesterday’s market spanking.

Here’s what went down overnight…

Wall Street perks up, but AI’s starting to look a bit suss

Wall Street had a decent night, with the Dow climbing 1%, the S&P 500 adding 0.25% and the Nasdaq trading flattish.

STOCK INDICESValueChange ASX 200 8,817 -0.33% S&P 500 7,711 0.26% Dow Jones 52,490 1.01% Nasdaq Comp 26,412 -0.07% Russell 2000 2,776 1.76% Euro Stoxx 50 6,122 -0.38% UK FTSE 10,733 -0.29% German DAX 25,304 -0.06% French CAC 7,838 -0.38%

Oil helped calm a few nerves, with Brent crude slipping to US$109 a barrel as hopes of progress in US-Iran peace talks started doing the rounds.

Tech stocks also managed to get off the floor, although Wall Street’s starting to look at the AI boom like a bloke who’s just opened his credit card bill after a massive weekend.

South Korea’s AI computing mob Elice made its stock market debut and promptly faceplanted 32%.

Elice is one of those neoclouds – basically companies that borrow truckloads of cash, build massive data centres, fill them with fancy AI chips and rent out the computing power.

Sounds like easy money, right?

Well, CoreWeave has a similar business model and already copped a hiding, down more than 60% from its peak, while Australia’s Firmus recently pulled the pin on its planned $5.5 billion IPO.

Even Britain’s Nvidia-backed Nscale is getting grilled over its price tag.

Seems Wall Street still loves AI. It’s just not quite as keen on handing out blank cheques to just any one anymore.

Over in Europe, the mood was a bit ordinary too.

France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.4% as violent protests added to the country’s already impressive collection of economic headaches.

France could really do with a quiet week. Good luck with that.

Boeing catches a break, Netflix needs a good show

Boeing finally got some good news, with US regulators giving its 737 Max 10 the thumbs-up after years of drama.

With more than 1,500 orders waiting, that’s a pretty handy win.

Salesforce is splashing around US$5.7 billion on marketing software outfit Braze to give its AI offering a bit more grunt.

Netflix, meanwhile, has had more than US$135 billion wiped off its market value this year, with shares down over 25%.

Management is shaking up its content team and planning around 1,000 job cuts.

With earnings due after the bell this morning, investors will be hoping Netflix has a few blockbusters up its sleeve.

Because another 12-part documentary about a dodgy neighbour probably isn’t going to save the day.

Anthropic loses US$80bn

Anthropic, the mob behind Claude AI, reportedly lost more than US$80 billion in the first six months of 2026, according to the Wall Street Journal.

That’s roughly A$114 billion. In six bloody months.

Now, before you choke on your Weet-Bix, there’s a catch.

Around US$72 billion of that came from accounting charges linked to changes in the value of its funding arrangements.

So it’s not like Anthropic actually wheeled US$80 billion in cash out the back door and set fire to it.

Still, the company’s reportedly eyeing up to US$750 billion in future computing capacity spending.

But former Google boss Eric Schmidt probably isn’t losing any sleep over it.

He reportedly owns around 1% of Anthropic after chucking tens of millions into the company early on.

With an IPO looming, that little punt could turn into one almighty payday.

What’s on today?

Back home, Woodside will dish up its Q3 results this morning, while Sigma Healthcare fronts shareholders at its AGM.

RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser is also getting behind the microphone at 9.30am AEDT, so traders will be hanging off every word for clues about interest rates.

Central bankers have a special talent for talking for half an hour and somehow saying absolutely nothing.

Over on Wall Street, SpaceX, Capital One and Netflix are due to report after New York’s closing bell.

SpaceX should be an interesting one, with Macquarie reckoning investors will care more about Elon Musk’s AI plans than the actual quarterly numbers.

Commodity/forex/crypto market prices

Price (US)Move Gold / ounce $4,121.30 -0.47% Silver / ounce $57.77 1.20% Iron ore / tonne $90.95 0.06% Nickel / tonne $15,815 1.38% Copper / tonne $13,152 0.58% Zinc / tonne $3,733 0.33% Lithium carbonate 99.5% Min China Spot / tonne $15,284 -0.57% Uranium / pound $90.10 0.00% Oil (WTI) / barrel $98.24 -0.30% Oil (Brent) / barrel $109.13 -0.39% AUD/USD $0.7001 0.21% Bitcoin $82,502 0.78%

What got you talking

Also in the news…

Why this African nation could be the world’s best junior gold market.

Follow the money: Colin Petroulas lifts Black Bear Minerals (ASX:BKB) onto the radar.

SoftBank brings icetana’s (ASX:ICE) AI security into its robot rollout.

The world’s gone prediction markets mad, and InFocus Group Holdings (ASX:IFG) wants a piece of the action.

Resources Top 5: Côte d’Ivoire shines for Skylark Minerals (ASX:SKM) and Eminence Minerals (ASX:EMA).

Trading Halts

Adavale Resources (ADD) – cap raise
BOA Resources (BOA) – cap raise
Energy Technologies (EGY) – defence agreement
LinQ Minerals (LNQ) – exploration update
Lodestar Minerals (LSR) – resource estimate
NGX (NGX) – acquisition and cap raise

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Black Bear Minerals, icetana and InFocus Group are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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

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