ASX Small Cap Lunch Wrap: Who’s worst shark nightmare has come true today?

Hurricane Ian has hit Florida and even the sharks are trying to escape it.

Fort Myers resident Brad Habuda took a video that appears to show a shark swimming down the street. 

Sharknado jokes aside, officials have warned that alligators, snakes and bears may also become more active as they become disoriented in the wild conditions – so they could turn up literally anywhere.

“You may be more likely to see alligators, snakes and bears, so remember to stay alert and give them space,” the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

TO MARKETS

The ASX 200 is trading up 1.80% at lunch today, with most sectors in the green.

Energy and Materials are leading the way, up 2.92% and 2.45% respectively, with coal stocks Whitehaven (ASX:WHC)  up 4.33%, followed by Yancoal (ASX:YAL) up 3.58%.

The Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the Job Vacancies publication today and CBA associate economist Harry Ottley says the ratio of vacant jobs to the number of unemployed is at very tight levels.

“Job vacancies likely remained elevated in August,” he said.

“Other, timelier indicators of labour demand such as online job advertisements indicate the number of job vacancies was broadly unchanged or could have eased slightly over the three months to August.”

NOT THE ASX

In recent days, investors have turned their attention to the U.K where last week the Government unveiled the country’s biggest tax cuts in decades. 

The news spooked investors and sent the yield on the 10-year sovereign bond soaring earlier this week and lifted interest rates elsewhere, including the US. 

On Wednesday, though, bond yields came back to earth after the Bank of England said it would buy U.K. government bonds with long maturities “on whatever scale is necessary.”

That helped drive Wednesday’s rise in US stocks, said David Lefkowitz, head of U.S. equities for UBS’s global wealth management business.

“For the last several trading days, the pressure on US stocks has been a reflection of some of the turmoil in the fixed-income market,” Lefkowitz said. “As that turmoil settles down, we’re seeing a better tone for equities.”

And European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has tweeted that damage to the Nord Stream pipelines that deliver Russian gas to central Europe was the result of sabotage. Russian state-owned Gazprom issued what analysts said appeared to be a threat to cut exports of the fuel through Ukraine.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for September 29 [intraday]:

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In the lead today was Raiden Resources (ASX:RDN) who say all four holes drilled so far at the Mt Sholl project have intercepted between 40m-65m of pentlandite (source of nickel), pyrrhotite (contains copper and nickel), and chalcopyrite (source of copper)  mineralisation. 

“All four of the initial drill holes are intercepting visible Nickel and Copper sulphide mineralisation on the B2 deposit and in line with our modelling,” MD Dusko Ljubojevic says.

“The program will continue testing the remainder of the B2 deposit along the strike before we drill confirm the mineralisation on the B1 and A1 deposits. 

“Other than providing confirmation of historical results, the drilling will ensure we obtain rock density information, as well as, material for future metallurgical studies and resource modelling all of which will be used to advance the project.” 

Confirmatory assays are still pending.

And Delorean Corporation (ASX:DEL) has achieved full commissioning and client handover of the Blue Lake Milling Bioenergy Project in South Australia. 

The bioenergy plant uses anaerobic digestion technology to process milling byproduct (ground oat milled fines or ‘GOMF’) for production of renewable electricity.

It has the capacity to process 12,000 tonnes per annum of GOMF, delivering a baseload power supply of up to 1.2MW of renewable electricity and thermal energy per hour. 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS