Local markets are stronger at lunch thanks to fresh evidence of a weaker Aussie retail sector.

Just after midday, the S&P/ASX200 was up 18 points or 0.24% to 7,655.60.

Here’s an emotional graph detailing what may not be the last mood swing of the week:

 

Via ASX

March retail sales fell by 0.4%, eclipsing the expected 0.2% rise with the kind of emphatic ordinariness the rate-calling crew at the Reserve Bank will appreciate.

The key takeaway – aside from less shopping last month – is higher rates are helping, which suggests less of them at some stage soon might help.

Notable missteps from the big end of town today have been taken by engineering services giant Worley (ASX:WOR)  after top shareholder Sidara flogged its stake on Monday, worth some $1.435bn.

Worley’s down more than 10%.

Coles Group (ASX:COL) is also significantly lower after reporting lower fresh fruit, veg and meat prices, though I haven’t noticed myself getting richer.

The supermarket told the ASX that prices are also moderating for its packaged products. Everything’s packaged.

The best on centre court this morning has been Arcadium Lithium (ASX:LTM) which has smashed out a free flowing 11% gain, while similarly sized lithium majors are also making some hay – the go to Li2O trio of Liontown (ASX:LTR), IGO (ASX:IGO), and Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) are all ahead.

The secret sauce this morning has been the renewed positivity thanks to a glut of this shaped stuff out of speculators like Thematica.

 

Elsewhere in commodities Brent crude oil was down 1% to US$88.50 a barrel, while gold was flat at US$2,335.19.

But for me, the opera this morning in Sydney definitely has a Chinese lilt.

Monday saw markets run on the idea of easing property buying restrictions, while Caixin’s Manufacturing PMI recorded a sixth straight month of growth in factory activity and at 51.4 it was the fastest pace since February 2023.

Caixin says new orders are rising the most in more than 12 months, while overseas sales grew at their fastest pace in over 40 months, since well into Covid.

The ASX200 is down about 0.35% since Tuesday last – and is still all but unchanged over the last 12 months.
 

ASX Sectors at Lunch on Tuesday

 

Via MarketIndex

 

Both the Small Ords (XSO) and the XEC Emerging Companies indices were higher at lunchtime.
 

ASX Indices at lunch on Tuesday

NOT THE ASX

An Elon-led rally has given the flotsam some more jetsam on Wall St.

A pretty pop in Tesla stock helped the street stay upbeat as a furious week for corporate earnings and economic data unfold again before us.

Overnight, the S&P500 rose 0.3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.4%, as did the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The Aussie dollar is flat and at 65.65 US cents, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better descriptor of current commodity prices –   although it was actually a pretty good Monday for a change across the previously resource-hungry Chinese markets.

They’ll tie it to Wall Street ebullience but the good news actually began in lovely Chengdu, home of quality hotpot and the capital of Sichuan province, where onerous property-buying restrictions were nixed – sparking something inside investors which could be akin to hope.

We’ll see what happens. Should other mainland Tier-1 cities follow suit – Shanghai, Guangzhou or Beijing – then the crowds are likely to gather. Whatever else falls over in China, if the ponderous property sector looks up, then we have ourselves a game.

On Monday the first time since property stock silliness has likewise restricted giants like China Vanke to rise by a daily permitted maximum of 10%, it did.

Most surviving real estate stocks climbed on Monday, Poly Developments & Holdings Group added 7.5%.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.8% higher at 3113.04 and the Shenzhen Composite Index was 2.3% higher.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed 0.5% higher at 17746.91, also led by property stocks.

Even the share price of bloody Country Garden – perhaps the most heinously indebted company to ever dare slap Ltd after its name – collected 11%.

A surge in Tesla’s stock helped the market extend its rally to start a busy week for corporate earnings and economic data.

Major US indexes edged higher Monday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ticked upward by 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.4%, or 146 points.

Tesla shares shot around 15% higher last night, Elon’s best one-day gain since 2021, that’s being put down to Elon and Beijing agreeing to let TSLA test its driver-assistance service on China’s streets.

Elsewhere on the earnings front, following the corker numbers of Alphabet and Microsoft last week, two more Magnificent 7 stocks – Amazon and Apple – will drop reports before the week is done.

While Amazon is anticipated to showcase substantial revenue growth, analysts are more reserved about Apple’s prospects, particularly amid declining iPhone sales in China.

Additionally, fat-busting pharma Eli Lilly will reveal just how much of its blockbuster weight loss and diabetes drugs its sold over the last three months. Analysts predict – a lot.

At lunchtime in Sydney, mixed US Futures were thus:

Via Fox

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 30 April [intraday]:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

A successful relaunch for Ovanti (ASX:OVT) which recommenced trading today and saw its price triple from its recent 1 cent raise to as much as 3.1 cents to settle at 2.8 cents. Ovanti wants to capitalise on resurgent interest in the BNPL space and grow its offering aggressively throughout the lucrative markets of South-East Asia.

Also rising strongly on Tuesday morning is PVW Resources (ASX:PVW) which has dropped mostly unastonishing quarterly numbers after putting so much of its gold and REE life on hold thanks to the particularly wet wet season in the Northern Territory.

That said, there’s definitely some enthusiasm for PVW’s prospects. It’s contained its cash burn and with a few budding REE licences in the post, the company says the focus for the coming quarter is on planning gold exploration activities at the Kalgoorlie Project and getting right up in the face of its Gascoyne Province rare earths digs.

Gascoyne, the digger says, is “is one of the most exciting new REE provinces globally.”

It includes the Yangibana Mine, owned by Hastings Technology Metals (ASX:HAS), and Dreadnought Resources Yin Project.

There’s a distinct silver lining to local markets for Argent Minerals (ASX:ARD) which says it’s bumped into some thick and high-grade silver from surface which will nicely expand their mineralised footprint so far at the flagship Kempfield polymetallic deposit in NSW.

Highlights include 88m at 25.23g/t silver from 2m depth.

Elsewhere, Oceana Lithium (ASX:OCN) defined a large uranium anomaly, +4.5km long and 700m wide, and the Napperby project in the Northern Territory.

And also rising sharply is the software stock Knosys (ASX:KNO) which hauled in some $507K in Q3 profit, reportedly leaving KNO on track to deliver “a strong maiden annual positive EBITDA and positive cashflow in FY24.”

Finally, our Nadine McGrath reports Clarity Pharma (ASX:CU6) has jumped almost 10% this morning after revealing that the first patient to be dosed with two cycles of 67Cu-SAR-bisPSMA at 8GBq achieved a complete response to treatment based on RECIST criteria.

The patient received the first cycle of 67Cu-SAR-bisPSMA as part of Cohort 2 of Clarity’s theranostic SECuRE trial, which is evaluating the drug in patients with mCRPC (metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer).

There’s a lot of Aussies out there hoping for good news on the metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer front.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 30 April [intraday]:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

ICYMI – AM EDITION

First Lithium (ASX:FL1) is looking to raise up to $3.2m through a non-renounceable rights issue of shares priced at 22.5c each to all shareholders.

Existing major shareholders – including the largest holder Intermin Mines Corporation – have already pre-committed to taking up $1.75m worth of shares.

Proceeds from the rights issue will be used to deliver the maiden resource estimate for the Blakala lithium deposit within its Gouana permit in Mali.

Greenvale Energy (ASX:GRV) has completed the acquisition of a 75% interest in EP145 in the Amadeus Basin in central Australia from Mosman Oil and Gas.

EP145 sits within recognised play fairways for helium and hydrogen and contains proven hydrocarbon discoveries.

It has an existing best estimate prospective resource of 440 billion cubic feet of natural gas, 26.4Bcf of helium and 26.4Bcf of hydrogen and is on trend with the producing Mereenie oil and gas field.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While First Lithium and Greenvale Energy are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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