ASX Small Cap Lunch Wrap: Who’s been happily reunited today?

In an amazing piece of good news, the hunt for missing four-year-old Cleo Smith is over today after police found her alive in a locked home in Carnarvon.

It’s been more than two weeks since she disappeared from the Blowholes camp site and police said she has now been reunited with her family.

A 36-year-old Carnarvon man has been taken into custody and is being questioned by detectives.

A neighbour of the house where Cleo was found said the man who lived there was “quiet” and said he noticed the man buying nappies from a local supermarket recently.

“We didn’t click who … he was buying them for,” he said.

“One of the officers picked her up into his arms and asked her: ‘What’s your name?'”

“She said – my name is Cleo.” @WA_Police say missing four-year-old Cleo Smith has been found alive and well, after she was rescued from a locked house in Canarvon, 900km north of Perth. pic.twitter.com/LuM9ZRXGMH

— 10 News First Perth (@10NewsFirstPER) November 2, 2021

To Markets …

The ASX 200 is up 102.80 points or 1.40% at midday today to 7,427.10.

Oil prices are mixed as traders await the weekly US supply reports and also the meeting of the OPEC+ group of oil producers to be held on Thursday.

The Brent crude price rose to US$84.72 a barrel and the US Nymex crude price lost 0.2% to US$83.91 a barrel.

Base metal prices fell by between 0.5-2.2% and the gold futures price fell by 0.4% to U$1,789.40 an ounce with spot gold trading near US$1,787 an ounce.

Iron ore slid by US$6.85 or 6.6% to US$96.45 a tonne, but BHP (ASX:BHP) FMG (ASX:FMG) and RIO (ASX:RIO) were all up today, 1.04%, 2.37%, and 0.12% respectively.

According to Morningstar with Dow Jones, investors await the US Federal Reserve’s rates decision and whether a period of rising prices could last longer and weigh more on the economy than central bank officials have suggested.

Major central banks elsewhere in the world, concerned about stubbornly high inflation, have been moving forward plans to raise rates.
On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia signalled it would raise interest rates sooner than expected.

The Bank of England is expected to increase rates when it meets on Thursday, while Canada’s central bank suggested last week that it could do so as soon as April.
“Virtually every policy taken has been inflationary in nature,” said Tim Courtney, chief investment officer at Exencial Wealth Advisors.

“The market will disagree, but I think the biggest risk is that the Fed doesn’t move fast enough” in raising rates, he said.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for November 3 [intraday]:

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

The biggest small cap winner today was Wooboard (ASX:WOO) up 100% on no news.

It was followed by Memphasys (ASX:MEM) which jumped 48.3% after completing verification and validation assessments for its Felix sperm separation device for early access markets with low regulatory requirements.

Next up was Arcadia Minerals (ASX:AM7) up 30% off the back off its 50%-owned subsidiary in Namibia acquiring three licences containing an inferred JORC Mineral Resource.

Up 26.2% was Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals (ASX:PAR) after announcing US FDA clearance of its IND (investigational new drug) application for a Phase 3 trial for PPS/Zilosu – an injectable drug that treats pain associated with knee osteoarthritis

And Fastbrick Robotics (ASX:FBR) jumped 25% off its Mexican deal to build 2,000 homes with its construction robot.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

The biggest loser today was Analytica (ASX:ALT) which dropped 50%, followed by Pancontinental Energy (ASX:PCL) down 33.3% – both on no news.

Then there’s Uranium player Berkeley Energia (ASX:BKY) which fell 28.1% after receiving a claim from Singapore Mining Acquisition Co Pte Ltd (a subsidiary of the Oman Investment Authority) alleging that the principle amount of US$65 million of the convertible note entered into in 2017 is immediately payable by the company.

It’s alleged that the investment agreement and convertible note have been frustrated, repudiated and/or an event of default has occurred – Berkeley disputes the claim and is currently seeking legal advice.