Stockhead readers would be familiar with the site’s in-depth gold coverage, as prices hover above US$1,800/oz while the 2022 inflation outlook grows increasingly complex.

On that note, an easy segue: Australia has a struck gold at the Winter Olympics, where Jakara Anthony boosted down the slalom course to break a 12-year gold medal drought for an often drought-stricken country which usually does its best work at the summer version of the Games.

Outside of that, the Beijing Games have so far offered a fairly grim pallet of emerging stories.

A lack of quality food for athletes has been flagged by some competitors, while others have raised alarm bells over draconian COVID-19 measures — particularly for entrants that test positive.

Elsewhere, figure skater Zhu Yi represented China in the teams event, but took a tumble early on.

That prompted some angst on Chinese social media, some of it highlighting the fact Yi was actually born in the US.

But before resentment reached fever pitch, reports indicated that Chinese censors had stepped in.

This is going well. Apparently there is concern that it might even be too cold for athletes in China.

Back in Australia, local stocks have made a lukewarm start to the week as global markets navigate their way through increased volatility.

US stocks rose on Friday following a strong jobs report and a surge for tech giant Amazon, which upped the price of its Prime subscription.

On the ASX, few sectors stood out although this year’s best performer — the ASX 200 Energy index — continued to push higher amid the upward pressure on oil prices.

Despite Anthony’s best efforts, large cap ASX gold miners were lower while banking stocks also lagged.
 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for February 7 [intraday]:

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Among stocks with news, game development company PlaySide Studios (ASX:PLY) led the pack, following a market update on what the company called its first Web 3.0 project.

Through its Dumb Ways to Die gaming franchise (acquired in September last year), PLY announced the early results from its BEANS NFT launch.

Following the launch last Friday, PLY said it had booked “$8.38m in net revenue after all third-party fees”.

As a possible indicator of investor interest in the metaverse and NFT, shares in the company ripped higher by around 30% in morning trade.

Leading the resources pack was market minnow Carbon Minerals (ASX:CRM), which operates a coal seam gas project in the Gunnedah Basin, NSW.

Shares in the ~$5m market cap company, which usually trades on low volumes, jumped by around 30% on no news.
 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for February 7 [intraday]:

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

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