On Stockhead today, the most in-demand stocks on the ASX right now, the big player driving graphite prices higher, and the gaming stocks the experts are backing right now.

But first, here’s what you need to know before markets open.

The week ahead in data

The NAB’s monthly business survey is out this morning (11:30am eastern time). The index has been decline for most of this year, but Westpac’s economics team think the latest reading could rise sharply now there’s some political clarity following last month’s federal election.

That will be followed by Westpac’s monthly consumer confidence survey tomorrow, along with speeches by RBA assistant governors Chris Kent and Lucy Ellis.

And the big data event this week is the May employment report, scheduled for Thursday (11:30am AEST).

The RBA has highlighted labour market moves as the central cog in the current outlook for interest rates, and the unemployment rate has ticked higher above 5 per cent in the last two months. The median forecast is for monthly jobs growth of 15,000 with the unemployment rate to hold at 5.1 per cent.

Globally, Wednesday will be busy with Chinese inflation data for May in Asian trade, followed by US inflation figures on Wednesday night along with a speech by ECB President Mario Draghi.

Company news

The following companies are scheduled to come out of a trading halt or voluntary suspension during today’s session:

TNG (ASX: TNG) – capital raising
Benetic Biopharma (ASX: BLT) – contract update
My Fiziq (ASX: MYQ) – commercial partnership
Emerge Gaming (ASX: EM1) – partnership announcement.

Commodities

Gold: $US1,328.19 ($1,907.94) -0.94%

Silver: $US14.68 -1.96%

Oil (Brent): $US62.47 -1.49%

Oil (WTI): $US53.37 -1.06%

Coal: $US76.75 +2.33%

Iron ore 62pc fe: $US97.78 +0.02%

AUD/USD: $US0.6960 -0.01%

What got you talking last week

Group members on the Stockhead Facebook forum were interested in the latest edition of Escrow Watch along with some recent M&A activity in the cannabis sector.

Oh and if you haven’t already, jump on the group page and join in the survey we’re running on the most commonly used share trading platforms.

These were the five most-discussed stocks on trading gossip forum HotCopper at close yesterday:

Last week’s winners

Junior explorer Predictive Discovery (ASX: PDI) led the market all week, after a big gold find at its Ferkessedougou North project in Cote D’Ivoire.

The company said it had struck an intercept 100m wide and at least 210m long, with one 9-metre intersection returning mineralisation of 10.31 grams per tonne.

Here are the best performing ASX stocks for the week ended June 7:

Ticker Name Price last Friday Price this Friday % change Market Cap
ADD ADAVALE RESOURCES 0.003 0.009 200 $997,737.06
NTI NEUROTECH INTERNATIONAL 0.012 0.025 117 $3,529,340.50
ARM AURORA MINERALS 0.008 0.017 112 $2,811,198.75
AHN ATHENA RESOURCES 0.013 0.024 85 $6,502,822.00
PDI PREDICTIVE DISCOVERY 0.009 0.019 78 $4,722,273.00
KKL KOLLAKORN 0.01 0.016 60 $3,356,435.00
NES NELSON RESOURCES 0.05 0.079 58 $3,601,834.75
ANL AMANI GOLD 0.002 0.0025 50 $15,639,682.00
AVW AVIRA RESOURCES 0.002 0.003 50 $3,000,000.00
RNX RENEGADE EXPLORATION 0.002 0.003 50 $2,137,880.00
BLK BLACKHAM RESOURCES 0.007 0.01 43 $31,042,176.00
DTM DART MINING 0.006 0.007 40 $7,079,633.00
K2F K2FLY 0.115 0.16 39 $12,056,663.00
VMG VDM GROUP 0.002 0.002 33 $12,555,322.00
GPP GREENPOWER ENERGY 0.0015 0.002 33 $3,886,414.25
NOR NORWOOD SYSTEMS 0.003 0.004 33 $8,306,041.00
OVL ORO VERDE 0.002 0.002 33 $3,111,357.00
RXH REWARDLE 0.003 0.004 33 $2,105,286.00
SMI SANTANA MINERALS 0.003 0.004 33 $2,700,798.00
EHX EHR RESOURCES 0.03 0.04 33 $5,066,719.50
FPL FREMONT PETROLEUM 0.01 0.011 30 $21,688,360.00
RAN RANGE INTERNATIONAL 0.024 0.031 29 $6,232,704.50
BMG BMG RESOURCES 0.011 0.014 27 $7,808,253.50
NVA NOVA MINERALS 0.015 0.019 27 $14,708,549.00
ABV ADVANCED BRAKING TECHNOLOGY 0.015 0.019 27 $5,643,946.00
HFR HIGHFIELD RESOURCES 0.73 0.95 26 $303,163,008.00
LKE LAKE RESOURCES 0.08 0.1 25 $40,328,600.00
CY5 CYGNUS GOLD 0.04 0.05 25 $3,034,167.00
SHH SHREE MINERALS 0.006 0.008 25 $4,558,026.50
GBZ GBM RESOURCES 0.004 0.005 25 $5,452,985.00
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Last week’s losers

The search for gold giveth, and it also taketh away.

While Predictive Discovery rose by as much as 200 per cent last week, it was a different story for Dacian Gold (ASX:DCN).

The company announced its second production downgrade in three months at its Mount Morgan operation in three months. The company’s stock price fell more than 70 per cent following the negative updated, which it blamed on poor contractor performance and low gold grades.

Here are the worst performing ASX stocks for the week ended June 7:

Ticker Name Price last Friday Price this Friday % change Market Cap
TMZ THOMSON RESOURCES 0.035 0.026 -26 $2,933,169.00
IPD IMPEDIMED 0.155 0.12 -26 $43,677,460.00
AZY ANTIPA MINERALS 0.019 0.0155 -26 $29,068,656.00
ADR ADHERIUM 0.034 0.025 -26 $4,356,848.50
WHK WHITEHAWK 0.145 0.11 -28 $16,413,515.00
LMW LANDMARK WHITE 0.27 0.18 -28 $15,324,140.00
EER EAST ENERGY RESOURCES 0.007 0.005 -29 $16,004,935.00
JPR JUPITER ENERGY 0.024 0.017 -29 $2,607,420.75
RIE RIEDEL RESOURCES 0.01 0.007 -30 $2,926,488.00
AAU ADCORP AUSTRALIA 0.01 0.007 -30 $3,185,522.00
MOY MILLENNIUM MINERALS 0.105 0.075 -30 $65,056,616.00
AIY AUTHORISED INVESTMENT FUND 0.059 0.043 -31 $17,302,712.00
RMG RMG 0.016 0.011 -31 $6,774,513.50
CTM CENTAURUS METALS 0.009 0.0065 -33 $16,253,893.00
SPB SOUTH PACIFIC RESOURCES 0.004 0.002 -33 $331,030.63
DTR DATELINE RESOURCES 0.003 0.002 -33 $15,938,908.00
TSC TWENTY SEVEN CO 0.003 0.0025 -33 $1,962,122.63
GGX GAS2GRID 0.003 0.002 -33 $3,457,227.25
VPR VOLT POWER GROUP 0.0015 0.001 -33 $8,244,533.50
MYQ MYFIZIQ 0.25 0.016 -36 $14,526,169.00
ARD ARGENT MINERALS 0.016 0.011 -38 $5,395,613.50
VAR VARISCAN MINES 0.002 0.001 -50 $1,271,073.63
AKN AUKING MINING 0.002 0.001 -50 $932,584.44
COY COPPERMOLY 0.01 0.005 -50 $8,615,217.00
SUR SUN RESOURCES 0.002 0.001 -50 $881,057.56
DCN DACIAN GOLD 1.58 0.043 -72 $99,313,896.00
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