There are lessons in life that just about everyone learns the hard way.

One lesson that rules them all – aside from don’t take a midnight ride in a drunken wheelie bin down Hunter St  – is never, ever leave your phone unlocked when there are kids around. Because – while occasionally lovely – toddlers are devious little malcontents who’ll put the family dog on Gumtree to get some tech in their grubby mitts.

Case in point:

Texas woman Kelsey Golden learnt this lesson the hard way, when her two-year-old got into her phone, and decided he had a powerful hunger for some Maccas.

The first inkling the Texas mum had that something was awry was a message saying her DoorDash order was running late.

The reason for the delay: her local McDonalds had to cook up an artery-hardening 31 cheeseburgers that her son Barrett had managed to order.

At nearly $100, Golden’s mistake isn’t exactly a bank buster – and she ended up giving the burgers away to her neighbours. (Or so she’s told CNN who defo didn’t check the freezer or under the couch.)

Apparently, golden child “doesn’t even like” cheeseburgers, and only ate half of one.

To Markets …

The S&P/ASX 200 index was down by half a cheeseburger to 7119.4 around lunchtime after some surprisingly frank remarks on how China’s economy is looking as bleak as 2020 – maybe worse – from Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Resources are leading the losses, while Appen is making things happen with a takeover offer which even made the stone cold heart of Stockhead’s Eddy Sunarto skip a beat.

Around the region, Chinese stocks fell in concert with the ASX which had actually started Thursday feeling pretty good about the world after a less-hawkish word or two out of the US Fed on the trajectory of rate hikes.

But when you’re an Australian resources giant, and the incredibly reticent Chinese leadership says ‘look out, the economy is – in some respects – looking a bit wobblier than back when the ol’ pandemic first ran amok in Wuhan,’ well, you fall. You fall fast.

That’s what the iron ore giants and the coal miners have done. And they’re a big slice of the ASX200.

In the states, Wall Street took on a full per cent on less strident Fed minutes which reckoned rates would rise by half a point at the next two meetings, perfectly meeting expectations, and nixing fears of a 75-basis point surge.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for May 26 [intraday]:

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Technically artificial intelligence (AI) training data services Appen (ASX:APX) might not be the smallest cap in the cupboard, but it’s certainly been trying on sizes.

Mainly small ones – in the few months since Christmas APX has lost almost half its value – with the gentle scribes at the AFR referring to them as that ‘bombed out AI software company’.

Well now they’re a total takeover target after receiving an offer from Canadian based telco, Telus International.

At $9.50, the offer price was a huge 48% premium to Appen’s $6.40 closing price on Wednesday.

There’s totally going to be a bidding war. Our fave kind of war.

Meanwhile the virtual reality firm xReality Group (ASX:XRG) has raised $1.26m via a placement at NO discount to the last trading price. The share price has gone all Lawnmower Man – up about 40%.

Explorer BBX Minerals (ASX:BBX) hit “significant precious metals values” in drilling at the ‘Três Estados’ project  in Brazil. Its value is significantly more precious now.

And moving heavenwards, naturally, is Eden (ASX:EDE) which inked a long term offtake agreement for its EdenCrete product.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

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