ASX Small Cap Lunch Wrap: Who got a speeding ticket from the fun police today?

Thousands of Teslas have been recalled over a boombox feature that allows drivers to replace the horn and instead use goat or fart noises.

But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn’t find it funny.

It said the feature may hinder pedestrians’ ability to hear a mandatory warning sound, increasing the risk of collision.

It’s kind of a fair point – because pedestrian warnings are required in all electric and hybrid vehicles since EVs are much quieter than normal cars.

Elon Musk wasn’t too happy that 578,607 vehicles were recalled, blaming “the fun police.”

To Markets …

The ASX 200 is down 27.90 points or 0.39% at midday today to 7216.

European share markets were weaker yesterday as investors monitored the tensions in Ukraine, with travel and banking leading the falls.

Commerzbank fell by 2.7% after Germany’s finance minister said the government would not keep its stake in the lender in the long run. And Russian-exposed banks also fell with Societe Generale down 6.1%. T

Global oil prices rose by around 2.5% to 7-year highs.

Oil markets had cooled after Ukrainian Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko said Ukraine was prepared to make some concessions to Russia. But prices lifted sharply on news that the US the State Department moved its remaining embassy staff from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to Lviv.

Brent crude price rose by 2.2% to US$96.48 a barrel. US Nymex crude price rose by 2.5% to US$95.46 a barrel.

Analysts said that any disruption in oil supplies in the region would push crude prices well over US$100 a barrel.

And good old gold rose by 1.5% to US$1,869.40 an ounce yesterday, with Spot gold trading near US$1,871 an ounce.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for February 15 [intraday]:

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

The biggest winner today was Analytica (ASX:ALT), followed by Aus Tin Mining (ASX:ANW), both on no news.

Lakes Blue Energy (ASX:LKO) was up, after announcing that drilling of the Wellesley-2 well is at 1,475m depth, just above the predicted reservoir section. Any significant gas show(s) will be tested once target depth has been reached, the company says.

A recently completed $1.6m placement means the company will be cashed up with $7.1m, significantly reducing funding that will need to be secured for drilling of the Wombat-5 gas well later in 2022.

And AXP Energy (ASX:AXP) was up after securing permits from the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to jointly deliver in-situ power generation with Elite Mining Inc using stranded natural gas from its Colorado leases, for use in EMI’s cryptocurrency mining operations.

Work will commence this week on the installation of the first of three Elite Mobile Unit and the gas-fired power generation.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS