Local markets are in a funk this morning – and it’s not the good kind of neck-wrenching, Bootsy Collins on bass, glitter and glam kind of funk, either.

It’s the “every sector in the red, and the benchmark below -1.0%” kind of funk, and it’s largely due to a slump within the Resources sector, which is pummelling the goldies this morning as well.

I’ll get into the details of that shortly, but first we’re off to the US, where the local birdlife is – apparently – fighting back against human technology, with some devastating results.

The first part of this tale comes from the beaches of New York City – yes, there are beaches there and yes, they are every bit as dire as you’d expect them to be.

Officials there have turned to a high-tech solution to help keep swimmers safe, using drones to patrol the beaches, keep an eye out for sharks and – in extreme cases – use life-preservers that can be dropped on the heads of swimmers who are already struggling to keep their breathing bits out of the water.

The drones, for what it’s worth, have been patrolling the beaches since May. In that time, they have rescued zero swimmers, and spotted one shark. So, it’s definitely been worth the US$2 million the city has spent on the drones so far.

The real problem for the drones is that the local seabirds don’t like ’em, no sir, they do not like them even one little bit. And the problem is getting so bad that the city is faced with having to take serious steps to try to co-exist with them.

There are reports of large flocks of birds ganging up on the drones in an attempt to drive them away, with wildlife experts suggesting that the birds – quite rightfully – see these hovering monstrosities as a new form of predator.

Most of the threat is coming from the local American Oystercatcher population – a protected species that lays its eggs on the beaches at this time of year, which has put the city in a bit of a pickle, with the multi-million dollar high tech program now in serious doubt about its future.

But, despite “several close calls”, there hasn’t been any instance of damage observed to the birds, or the drones – so it’s a bit of a stalemate at the moment.

Unlike what’s happened in Byers, Colorado this week, where one bird’s run in with modern technology has ended in disaster.

Officials there say a bird that “came into contact with electrical equipment” is responsible for a brushfire that burnt through more than 1,000 acres on the weekend, selflessly sacrificing its own life by bursting into flames and falling to the ground.

With the tally now at Birds -1, Humans -1,000 acres, that’s a definite win for the angry birds.

 

TO MARKETS

It’s all been a bit ghastly on Friday morning, with the ASX 200 benchmark falling sharply at open and not really improving all that much in the early part of the session today.

By lunchtime, every sector was in the red, and the benchmark was down 1.20% on yesterday’s close, tracking a not-so-stellar session on Wall Street overnight.

This is what the sectors looked like at lunchtime today.

 

Chart via Marketindex.com.au

 

Materials have been the worst hit of the bunch this morning, dragged lower by significant falls among the sector’s big guns, with Fortescue off by 2.34%, South32 down 2.87%, Pilbara 2.85% worse off… the list goes on, and you get the idea.

The other sector taking a hit Friday morning was InfoTech, which had a -3.39% shocker yesterday, and is down again this morning – but not as badly as the previous session.

The blame for that is being laid squarely at the feet of former US president Donald Trump, who delighted the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee with grim promises of ludicrously massive tariffs on anything even tangentially related to China, sending the Nasdaq into a tail-spin.

Trump was once again at the podium this morning, accepting the Republican party nomination for US president, before an amphitheatre full of dewy-eyed devotees with maxipads on their right ear.

“Because that was the fashion at the time.”

A look at the ASX indices shows a market in disarray, with the goldies struggling mightily for the morning, down 2.4% the last time I checked.

That’s despite some very bullish sentiment around the future price of gold that’s doing the rounds at the moment, including a recent update from Shaw and Partners, which puts its forecast above US$3,000/oz.

“We upgrade our Gold price forecasts to US$3,000/oz in 2025 and 2026 and expect recent outperformance in ASX listed gold equities to continue,” the report says.

Just not today, though.

Chart via Marketindex.com.au

 

NOT THE ASX

Overnight, the S&P 500 tumbled by 0.78%, the blue chips Dow Jones index slipped by 1.29%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined by 0.7%.

Earlybird Eddy reported this morning that “the week-long drop in megacap tech stocks spread on Thursday to include smaller companies and financial shares, as economic worries dampened the optimism for rate cuts.”

“The “rotation” trade, which has recently shifted funds away from megacaps to small caps, took a breather.

“The VIX index, a measure of market volatility and often referred to as the “fear index,” jumped 10% to reach its highest level in nearly three months,” Eddy said. Top stuff.

In US stock news, Meta Platforms jumped by 3% as it as it negotiates to acquire a minority stake in the maker of Ray-Ban sunglasses, with the Facebook parent company intensifying its push into the smart glasses market.

Apple Inc dropped 2% as it discusses licensing additional films from major Hollywood studios to boost its Apple TV+ streaming service.

Amazon fell over 2% as US shoppers spent US$14.2 billion online during Amazon’s 48-hour Prime Day sale.

Ford Motor Co rose 0.45% after saying that it will spend US$3 billion to manufacture the Super Duty F-Series pickup trucks at a plant in Ontario, Canada, redirecting its focus after postponing plans for an electric SUV.

In Asian markets this morning, it’s a similar story. Japan’s Nikkei is down 0.43%, the Hang Seng is 1.73% lower and Shanghai markets are wobbling gently either side of dead flat in early trade.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 19 July [intraday]:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

Flynn Gold (ASX:FG1) was an early leader on Friday morning after delivering news of a new high-grade gold discovery in Northeastern Tasmania, at the company’s Golden Ridge project. Drilling has revealed a gold vein zone in trenching 250m north of the Trafalgar mine, with 17 out of 36 grab rock chip samples assayed at over 10g/t Au, including 99.4g/t Au, 76.6g/t Au and 67.1g/t Au.

Metalicity (ASX:MCT) was up on news that it has appointed Argonaut PCF to seek indicative offers for its Admiral Bay Zinc Project, located in the Canning Basin, Kimberley Region of Western Australia, which the company says “hosts one of the largest zinc resources in the world, based on existing JORC 2012 compliant mineral resource (170mt @ 7.5% Zn eq)”.

Mayfield Group Holdings (ASX:MYG)  climbed quickly on Friday morning on news of some boardroom largesse for shareholders. The company has declared a fully franked final dividend of  $0.02 per share for the fiscal year ending on 30 June 2024, which is double the divvy the company paid out this time last year.

And Riversgold (ASX:RGL) has delivered an investor presentation this morning that has apparently worked rather well, with the company share price moving more than 7.6%, which isn’t terrible considering the rest of the market’s mood today.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 19 July [intraday]:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT – AM EDITION

Alvo Minerals (ASX:ALV) has increased open pit resources at its high-grade Palma copper-zinc VMS project in Central Brazil by 65% to 7.6Mt at 2% copper equivalent. Testing of high-priority targets across the >70km of prospective VMS strike is expected to add further to its resource inventory.

Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ) has been advised that the second and final batch of processing equipment for the Jugan pilot plant has been completed by China’s Yantai Jinpeng Mining Machinery and loaded onto a vessel that will arrive at Kuching Port in Sarawak, Malaysia, on 26 July.

Subject to obtaining final regulatory approval, the pilot plant, which is crucial to the development of its Bau Corridor gold project, will be constructed, processing equipment installed, tested and commissioned in conjunction with Yantai.

The pilot plant is designed to study the metallurgical processing of ore for Bau and has been designed to process 50 tonnes per day.

Everest Metals Corporation (ASX:EMC) has successfully applied to participate in the Federal government’s Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI) scheme for the 2024/25 financial year.

The JMEI scheme seeks to encourage investment in exploration companies carrying out greenfields mineral exploration in Australia by allowing companies to give up part of their tax losses for potential distribution to shareholders.

Chief executive officer Mark Caruso said the decision to participate in the scheme was undertaken to demonstrate additional upside for the company’s investors.

Felix Gold (ASX:FXG) has started auger drilling on claims adjacent to Kinross Gold Corporation’s Fort Knox gold mine.

Notably, the ground is strategically located on the tip of a granite Intrusion similar in size to that at Fort Knox, increasing the potential for significant mineral deposits.

The prospectivity of the area is also enhanced by the presence of historical evidence of gold mineralisation at several prospects as well as evidence of multiple drill traverses at Fort Knox that are aligned towards the company’s tenure.

New World Resources (ASX:NWC) has completed a pre-feasibility study that highlights robust economics for its Antler copper project in Arizona. The proposed development could mine 6Mt over 12.2 years to generate US$3.16Bn (A$4.61Bn) in gross revenue.

Queensland Pacific Metals (ASX:QPM) has received a grant of up to $8m from the Queensland Government to help prepare its Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH) for investment readiness. This takes the total grants received up to $16m.

Venture Minerals’ (ASX:VMS) drilling at the Jupiter rare earths discovery has returned another record-breaking intersection of 57m grading 3430ppm TREO. Consistently thick and high-grade mineralisation has been intersected over entire 40km² area of the Jupiter alkaline intrusion.

 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Alvo Minerals, Besra Gold, Everest Metals Corporation, Felix Gold, New World Resources, Queensland Pacific Metals and Venture Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

Read MoreMarkets

Featured Companies

You might be interested in