Righto, you lot – it’s Friday morning, and the past couple of days have been not-very-great for the ASX.

That makes today your last shot for the week to try turning the ship around in a bid to offset those losses, even though they’re evidently not your fault entirely.

As an investor, it’s your job to get out there and get the job done – and to help get you motivated and into a winning frame of mind, our journos have been scouring the landscape far and/or wide to get you the latest information you need to get a head start.

First off we’ve got Josh Chiat’s notes on what China’s been doing to lithium prices, and – because it’s Friday and he’s weirdly attracted to various forms of hydrocarbons, Bevis Yeo has brought us his latest dip into the world of oily, greasy gas.

John Lehmann has the good oil on a variety of tasty, tasty plonk – just the thing for your end-of-the-week drinks after work. Seriously, you’re losing money by not buying these legendary reds.

But before you race off, do be sure to catch up on the essential data below, because if you don’t read it I will have been horrendously late for a dinner date last night for no reason at all, and I would be sad.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,889.02 (-0.15%)

Silver: US$22.68 (+1.32%)

Nickel (3mth): US$20,310/t (+2.56%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,234/t (+0.82%)

Oil (WTI): US$80.06  (+0.86%)

Oil (Brent): US$83.76 (+0.37%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$105.64/t (+0.79%)

AUD/USD: 0.6403  (-0.5%)

Bitcoin: US$25,499 (-11.02%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Turns out I might not be the only one asking questions about power bills and record profits yesterday.

 

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

Yesterday’s Small Caps standouts were:

Cosmos Exploration (ASX:C1X) found itself in first place yesterday, rising more than 31% despite no news since Tuesday when it announced that rock chip sampling at its Leatherback prospect at Byro East in WA showed “significant rare earths potential”, boasting one sample at 1.1% TREYO and 21% NdP.

Second-place getter was Caprice Resources (ASX:CRS) up thanks to rock chip news after sampling at the company’s new Colosseum prospect at Mukinbudin delineated a +500m target with a peak 5,068ppm (0.5%) TREO (21.3% HREO) value.

That news was delivered this morning, pushing Caprice up 24%.

And in third place was Oceana Lithium (ASX:OCN), after it capitalised on the market’s obsession with all things James Bay by climbing more than 20% on news that fieldwork is now underway at the company’s Monaro project, thanks to local officials easing bushfire restrictions over the region.

Yesterday’s pre-lunch frontrunners Australian Silica Quartz (ASX:ASQ) held on to end the day 20.3% higher, and Wednesday’s winner Loyal Lithium (ASX:LLI) stacked on another 17% today as well.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

TRADING HALTS

Resonance Health (ASX:RHT) – Execution of a material contract for the provision of services in connection with a clinical trial to be conducted by a major pharmaceutical company.

Western Gold Resources (ASX:WGR) – Material acquisition and capital raising.

Noble Helium (ASX:NHE) – Capital raising.

Cygnus Metals (ASX:CY5) – Capital raising.

Native Mineral Resources (ASX:NMR) – Capital raising.

Global Oil & Gas (ASX:GLV) – Finalisation of a contract with Perupetro.

 

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