Well, it’s all chuckles and cheese for a third straight day on the ASX. How about that?

So far the S&P/ASX 200 has gained 22.40 pips and hit a new 100-day high of 7254.20, and it’s all because of you, dear investors. Maybe your blind faith and total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through this after all.

And while we’re channeling General Melchett, let’s talk a little bit about tradition.

Tradition: Germany hasn’t been beaten at the World Cup while leading at half-time since 1978.
Japan: Hold our Sapporos.

Okay, so there’s no beer in the World Cup village, but at least the water’s brown so you can kind of pretend. The main action though, as it should be, is on the pitch.

Yesterday, Saudi Arabia downed Argentina, and the Socceroos scored one goal against France. Incredible, unimaginable scenes.

And Canada became the first World Cup team since 1978 to attempt at least 20 shots and a penalty kick and still not score a goal. Seriously, it does not get any better than Canada clearly, subliminally just refusing to make another team feel bad… Or does it?

Yes. Yes it does. Japan ONLY WENT AND BEAT GERMANY this morning. Then, in classic Japanese style, cleaned up all the rubbish in the stadium, which we imagine is a lot in the aftermath of sad Germans.

Ooh, here’s anothery:

Tradition: The right to vote at 18.
Jacinda Ardern: “That’s a breach of young people’s rights”.

You’re not considered mature enough to drive a car safely. You’re not even trusted to be able to drink fermented fruit juice and act responsibly after. But sure, here are the keys to the country.

Yes, the New Zealand government will now ask parliament to lower the voting age to 16. Expect that to eventually get to the age of six, because that’s what David Runciman, professor of politics at Cambridge University recommends, and there are already four other countries with the 16 limit. And we all know how much New Zealand loves to “invent” things.

Tradition: Well, yeah Chinese students at least have shown a propensity for protest in the past. But, it’s generally frowned upon in the Middle Kingdom.
Foxconn workers:

And you probably would too, because what else have you go to lose when the government remotely switches your Covid passport to red whether you’ve got Covid or not?

There are some good arms in there. You’ll need them too, to open your driverless taxi which refuses to take you home because the government just remotely turned your Covid passport red:

It’s been a night, then.

Shifting our gaze to crypto, and speaking of betting against tradition, Ark Invest’s billion-splashing, polarising chief Cathie Wood doubled down on her Bitcoin prediction that it would hit US$1m… by 2030.

“Bitcoin is coming out of this smelling like a rose,” she says.

Clearly the easy money in is floristry, anywhere near Cathie’s neighbourhood. But the waft of hopium as crypto refuses to die, even in the aftermath of losing one of the world’s biggest exchanges, is definitely strong in Melbourne.

The two-day NFT Fest sold out, and Rob Badman is there and honestly amazed at the exuberance for right-click-save stuff. Here’s his roundup of day one and what to expect today.

And hey, if you’re genuinely holding and looking for signs the bottom is in, it’s a good day – Jim Cramer has “investors should cash out of crypto while they can.”

Now, to actual money. The kind nobody ever loses to scammers, right?

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

Overall, rosy as we discussed earlier. We’re up 1.66% over the past five days, but overall, down 2.56% for the last year to date.

Tech’s up 1.45%, Health +0.45%, Industrials +0.53% and Resources +0.51%, which, because it’s Resources, is more than enough to do the heavy lifting.

And it’s gold is leading the way.

Even St Barbs (ASX:SBM) is glowing, up 7% mainly because it’s a household name, has had a terrible run (ie is cheap) and gold is leading the way today. Newcrest (ASX:NCM), also with no news, is leading the top end of town with a 2.74% rise.

We’re putting it down to generally good vibes after Wall Street got an overnight boost from the release of the Fed meeting minutes which indicated that policymakers were leaning towards softening rate hikes.

“A substantial majority of participants judged that a slowing in the pace of increase would likely soon be appropriate,” was the wording in the minutes.

The S&P 500 closed higher by 0.59%, the Dow by 0.28% and tech heavy Nasdaq by 0.99%. US Treasury yields meanwhile dropped across the curve.

But wait, wait – this is a little telling. In two separate AGMs, both chairs of Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) and Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) were celebrating the recent BTC troubles.

As Josh Chiat reports, two of Australia’s biggest gold miners say the “unravelling of cryptocurrency” will add to bullish conditions for the precious metal in the coming year as it looks to reclaim its status as the world’s standout non-currency store of value.

“Recently, buying of gold by central banks, a weaker USD, stabilising bond yields, continued geopolitical risk and the unravelling of crypto ‘currencies’ are combining to give renewed support to the gold price and gold equities,” Regis chair chairman James MacTier said.

And Evolution chair Jake Klien:

“The recent developments in the crypto space, with significant losses incurred by investors in FTX and other crypto assets, have also reinforced gold’s worth as a superior storer of value.”

All well and good. But that could also be read as a tacit admission that gold miners actually do believe crypto can threaten their safe haven status, an idea which, when times were good for BTC and co, they were very quick to poo-poo.

Coal stocks, meanwhile, have been heavily sold off, with Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC), New Hope Corp (ASX:NHC) and Yancoal (ASX:YAL) all among the largest large cap losers today.

Energy stocks fell over 1% as oil prices dropped on info about Europe’s higher than expected price cap on Russian oil.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for November 23 [intraday]:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

CODE COMPANY PRICE % TODAY VOLUME MARKET CAP
LSR Lodestar Minerals 0.007 56% 52,227,122 $7,822,968
CRB Carbine Resources 0.014 40% 329,611 $3,152,755
IRI Integrated Research 0.49 34% 498,272 $63,129,864
TSC Twenty Seven Co. Ltd 0.002 33% 300,000 $7,982,442
AOU Auroch Minerals Ltd 0.069 33% 10,826,602 $19,297,814
WSR Westar Resources 0.06 30% 9,778,499 $2,882,369
AX8 Accelerate Resources 0.037 28% 22,463,297 $9,019,804
GRV Greenvale Mining Ltd 0.096 26% 1,401,191 $32,050,888
GLV Global Oil & Gas 0.0025 25% 195,000 $4,121,709
MTH Mithril Resources 0.005 25% 1,088,187 $11,760,932
CLX CTI Logistics 1.6 22% 59,963 $103,672,103
ICL Iceni Gold 0.125 19% 787,584 $13,460,625
BXN Bioxyne Ltd 0.025 19% 32,000 $13,978,553
HRN Horizon Gold Ltd 0.325 18% 11,600 $34,424,951
EDE Eden Inv Ltd 0.007 17% 3,883,939 $16,267,374
MCT Metalicity Limited 0.004 14% 1,000,249 $12,222,138
CLA Celsius Resource Ltd 0.017 13% 32,823,712 $22,542,436
MPG Manypeaksgoldlimited 0.225 13% 58,836 $6,790,400
NOX Noxopharm Limited 0.18 13% 7,526 $46,758,072
99L 99 Loyalty Ltd. 0.018 13% 464,225 $18,554,924
AYT Austin Metals Ltd 0.009 13% 225,000 $8,126,997
PIL Peppermint Inv Ltd 0.009 13% 3,864,665 $16,302,855
AFL Af Legal Group Ltd 0.14 12% 512,157 $9,567,052
NCK Nick Scali Limited 10.45 12% 276,441 $756,540,000
AEV Avenira Limited 0.038 12% 13,762,698 $41,786,563
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But as always, the winner is lithium, and today it was Lodestar’s (ASX:LSR) turn to get rich, adding a chunky $4 mill to its $8 mill market cap today on an announcement it had found, well, lithium at its Nepean project near Coolgardie, WA.

Specifically, high-grade lithium. And it was actually its JV partner Auroch (ASX:AOU) that found it, but sharesies.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for November 23 [intraday]:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

CODE COMPANY PRICE % TODAY VOLUME MARKET CAP
HIQR Hitiq Limited 0.002 -33% 1,197,213 $635,611
MEB Medibio Limited 0.001 -33% 1,115,182 $4,980,891
CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.0015 -25% 3,666,307 $31,285,147
MGG Mogul Games Grp Ltd 0.0015 -25% 12,000,000 $6,526,882
NTL New Talisman Gold 0.0015 -25% 2,189,292 $6,254,451
PNX PNX Metals Limited 0.004 -20% 600,000 $22,220,289
IVZ Invictus Energy Ltd 0.26 -17% 21,373,289 $276,703,195
YRL Yandal Resources 0.1 -17% 72,503 $18,936,069
PG1 Pearl Global Ltd 0.017 -15% 2,872,183 $20,044,946
TER Terracom Ltd 0.795 -15% 5,110,966 $743,551,989
AVW Avira Resources Ltd 0.003 -14% 4,282,581 $7,468,265
BIR BIR Financial Ltd 0.03 -14% 292 $9,832,766
BDX Bcaldiagnostics 0.061 -13% 74,000 $9,526,630
MCM Mc Mining Ltd 0.215 -12% 108,037 $97,431,989
DGR DGR Global Ltd 0.054 -11% 50,000 $63,665,302
ADR Adherium Ltd 0.004 -11% 100,000 $21,488,380
AMD Arrow Minerals 0.004 -11% 200,000 $9,151,943
WEC White Energy Company 0.26 -10% 5,209 $11,765,094
CLT Cellnet Group 0.026 -10% 17,351 $7,064,244
SVM Sovereign Metals 0.45 -10% 653,734 $235,437,512
AXP AXP Energy Ltd 0.0045 -10% 468,484 $29,123,403
COY Coppermoly Limited 0.009 -10% 625,038 $21,939,569
PGL Prospa Group 0.545 -9% 156,902 $98,174,671
OAR OAR Resources Ltd 0.005 -9% 285,117 $12,160,708
SI6 SI6 Metals Limited 0.005 -9% 1,200,000 $8,224,670
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