To some (tragic and unlucky) news out of Brazil for starters, where a man reportedly died after fishing with friends and jumping into a lake to escape a swarm of bees.

However the lake — in the centrally-located Brasilandia de Minas municipality — was also home to one of 30 species of piranha that roam the Amazon basin.

The group of friends were able to swim to safety, but the man didn’t make it out of the lake and his body was found close to shore.

Evidence indicated he’d been attacked by piranhas — although it wasn’t clear if the carnivorous fish had made a move before or after the man died.

So, um… yeah. To markets, the ASX is having another solid session after more steady gains on Wall Street overnight.

The US Fed clearly communicated its tapering plans, and the market approved with no concerns as yet that monetary policy is tightening fast enough to derail the equities train.

The ASX 200 (+0.16%) was outpaced by the microcap Emerging Companies index which rose more than 0.5%.

The big end of town was dragged lower by energy stocks. Brent crude oil prices eased back towards US$80/barrel.

In crypto markets, Bitcoin is holding steady above US$62,000. And ASX investors jumped at the chance to get additional crypto exposure as Betashares’ new Crypto Innovators ETF posted record daily inflows in its first hour of trade this morning.
 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for November 4 [intraday]:

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For stocks with announcements, gains were led by education technology platform Schrole Group (ASX:SCL), which jumped by around 20% as investors responded to its latest presentation this morning.

The company — which provides SaaS-based recruitment and background-check services for domestic and international schools — flagged a strong outlook for growth in the market for international schools as post-COVID travel restrictions are wound back.

Another winner was healthcare stock Invex Therapeutics (ASX:IXC), which jumped after announcing that it’s about to launch a Phase 3 clinical trial this quarter for Presendin — its lead drug candidate which has been shown to reduce the high pressure around the brain for patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (or IIH).

Today’s winners’ list was also highly populated by uranium stocks in another hot session for the sector.

Among the winners was $2.23bn player Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN), which provided an update on its restart plans for the Langer Heinrich Mine in Namibia, along with the mineral resources and ore reserves estimates at the site. More details on that update here.
 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for November 4 [intraday]:

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