We should all take pride in our work and singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is no exception, taking a swipe at Blur frontman and Gorillaz co-creator Damon Albarn who claimed in a recent Los Angeles Times interview that she doesn’t write her own music.
The comment fired up Swift, who is officially credited with writing or co-writing all of her music. She hit back at Albarn on the social media platform saying “Your hot take is completely false”.
Local Markets
To financial markets, which are playing a sombre song today. It’s a bit the case of do you want the bad news or the even worse news, as markets turn into a sea of red both at home and abroad.
US stocks dropped more than 5% last week, which is reportedly the worst return since COVID-19 hit the markets seriously in March 2020. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is ~14% lighter since the start of 2022.
New year optimism is starting to give way to grey skies and the build up of an afternoon summer storm in tropical Queensland. On local markets the ASX is back below 7000, falling sharply in morning trade at ~2.55% to sit ~6957.
Adding fuel to the fire is inflation, (traditionally equity markets look unfavourably at the key economic metric).
Australia’s latest inflation figures have been announced with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rising to 3.5%, up on forecasts of 3.2% compared with a year prior.
Trimmed CPI (the Reserve Bank or Australia’s preferred inflation measure as it excludes the components which show the most extreme monthly price changes) rose 2.6% compared with a year prior. The figure was up on forecasts of 2.4%.
With inflation comes the prospect of interest rate hikes spooking investors.
Markets are now priced for the RBA to lift rates earlier than anticipated, and much earlier than 2024 which it consistently earmarked throughout 2021.
Economists are already speculating as to when the RBA will announce its first lift in 2022.
ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for January 25 [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAS | Bass Oil Ltd | 0.002 | 33.3% | $6,919,022 |
| GTG | Genetic Technologies | 0.005 | 25.0% | $36,935,861 |
| BEZ | Besragoldinc | 0.13 | 23.8% | $18,044,246 |
| PNX | PNX Metals Limited | 0.006 | 20.0% | $18,260,968 |
| CDA | Codan Limited | 9.85 | 17.7% | $1,513,998,536 |
| 1ST | 1ST Group Ltd | 0.014 | 16.7% | $6,045,311 |
| ARE | Argonaut Resources | 0.0035 | 16.7% | $10,818,614 |
| DDD | 3D Resources Limited | 0.0035 | 16.7% | $11,641,116 |
| MBK | Metal Bank Ltd | 0.007 | 16.7% | $15,646,909 |
| OEX | Oilex Ltd | 0.0035 | 16.7% | $21,338,855 |
| AUQ | Alara Resources Ltd | 0.029 | 16.0% | $17,635,731 |
| TPD | Talon Energy Ltd | 0.008 | 14.3% | $47,510,327 |
| AKO | Akora Resources | 0.26 | 13.0% | $12,038,995 |
| MOB | Mobilicom Ltd | 0.045 | 12.5% | $12,877,469 |
| EQE | Equus Mining Ltd | 0.19 | 11.8% | $28,512,682 |
| SZL | Sezzle Inc. | 2.39 | 11.7% | $424,767,378 |
| ASW | Advanced Share Ltd | 0.34 | 11.5% | $58,989,372 |
| AQX | Alice Queen Ltd | 0.01 | 11.1% | $12,332,007 |
| A4N | Alpha Hpa Ltd | 0.655 | 10.1% | $473,314,541 |
| KFE | Kogi Iron Ltd | 0.011 | 10.0% | $13,175,778 |
| SAU | Southern Gold | 0.066 | 10.0% | $12,799,725 |
Among stocks with news, Codan (ASX:CDA) announced its first half sales were up 32% to $257 million and net profit up 21%. The metal detector-focused technology company will release its H1 2022 results in February along with its forecasts for H2.
The AI transcription and translation provider Ai-Media Technologies (ASX:AIM) was also up 5.8% today, off the back of a cashflow positive December quarterly.
ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS
Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for January 25 [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
| Code | Company | Last | % | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OAR | OAR Resources Ltd | 0.006 | -33.3% | $16,691,083 |
| CGB | Cann Global Limited | 0.002 | -33.3% | $19,006,460 |
| ANL | Amani Gold Ltd | 0.0015 | -25.0% | $45,751,128 |
| NPM | Newpeak Metals | 0.0015 | -25.0% | $15,299,500 |
| WOO | Wooboard Tech Ltd | 0.0015 | -25.0% | $7,644,325 |
| ZMM | Zimi Ltd | 0.009 | -25.0% | $11,759,033 |
| NAG | Nagambie Resources | 0.048 | -23.8% | $31,495,738 |
| VAR | Variscan Mines Ltd | 0.043 | -23.2% | $14,936,993 |
| CAD | Caeneus Minerals | 0.01 | -23.1% | $56,947,866 |
| VMM | Viridismining | 0.31 | -22.5% | $12,483,599 |
| PCL | Pancontinental Energ | 0.002 | -20.0% | $17,885,557 |
| 1MC | Morella Corporation | 0.0275 | -19.1% | $174,563,276 |
| NIS | Nickelsearch | 0.21 | -17.6% | $14,940,739 |
| WIN | Widgienickellimited | 0.28 | -17.6% | $85,000,000 |
| SLZ | Sultan Resources Ltd | 0.17 | -17.1% | $14,254,550 |
| KEY | KEY Petroleum | 0.0025 | -16.7% | $5,903,784 |
| MHK | Metalhawk. | 0.28 | -16.4% | $16,018,157 |
| ARR | American Rare Earths | 0.31 | -16.2% | $144,991,486 |