A bit like Vanilla Ice’s haircut from the early ’90s, local markets are uppish, if somewhat flat this morning. And yep, what with Gregor being poorly and all, that’s the best intro you’re gonna get from this column today.

Everything and everyone (including Eddy “99.9% of the Time Bang on the Money” Sunarto over at Market Highlights) was pointing to the likelihood of an ASX 200 dip this morning. And that still might play out. We’ll see where the land lies once we knock out this first bit before we look at some actually relevant market specifics.

It certainly feels like we’re “seeing things”, green things on the ASX price chart, particularly considering yesterday’s shock Aussie inflation report that lifted the chances of further interest rate-hiking “fun” from the RBA.

(Seamless segue time… ) And speaking of SEEING THINGS…

NASA’s top team of UFO experts has revealed that a Bart Simpson-led alien invasion is looking pretty unlikely. At this stage.

And that’s because what apparently at first appeared to resemble an alien spacecraft (or at least a UFO) off the coast of Virginia this week, turned out to be a balloon.

Nah, not the Chinese spy-balloon variety (although chances are it was made there) – a large, smiling yellow Bart Simpson inflatable.

According to a BBC report, Scott Kelly, a former astronaut and pilot, recalled flying near Virginia Beach on one occasion when a colleague became “convinced we flew by a UFO”.

“I didn’t see it. We turned around, we went to look at it, it turns out it was Bart Simpson. A balloon,” he said.

Ah well, an easy mistake to make. What’s even funnier about this, though, is the fact this little tidbit is apparently one of the key takeaways in an upcoming report from NASA on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), set to be released in July.

Yep. We’re feeling somewhat deflated too.

 

TO MARKETS

Right then, the ASX 200 hasn’t made a liar of this column in the time it took to bang that searing news intro together. It’s currently up 0.26%.

Maybe, just maybe, the fact the US House of Reps has voted to approve the bipartisan bill to suspend the US government’s US$31.4 trillion debt ceiling might have sent a few positive ripples our way across the Pacific?

In any case, let’s take a slightly closer look at what’s happening locally.

Source: marketindex.com.au

The chart tells some sort of story, with the IT sector leading the way so far today, and Industrials lagging just a tad.

Catching our eyes this morning in the slightly larger end of town, market cap-wise, we have:

• Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN): +11.9% – possibly on the fact the company has responded to speculation around the movement of the Namibian government potentially looking to seek “equity in various mining and petroleum projects for nil consideration“. Paladin says it is “not aware of any imminent proposed Namibian legislative changes that would affect the ownership of the Langer Heinrich mine”, of which the firm holds a 75% interest.

• Champion Iron (ASX:CIA): -5.6% – on no particularly standout, bed-crapping news that we’re seeing today.

 

NOT THE ASX

As Eddy reported earlier, Wall Street indices closed in the red overnight.

But, as mentioned above, the fact the US debt-ceiling raise proposal looks increasingly like becoming a “You Can’t Always Get What You Want, But if You Try Sometimes, You Might Just… Ah Fuggit” begrudging deal between Democrats and Republicans, perhaps we’re in for a half decent end to the week in markets after all?

Hmm, but then in steps the Fed, shaking its fist at risk-asset hopium addicts along with recession clouds.

The latest US JOLTS jobs data “came in strong”, wrote Eddy, “with job openings at 10.1 million, well above the consensus estimate of 9.4 million. The data has increased the chances of more Fed rate hikes.”

Boooo…

“Market calls that the Fed is done hiking won’t be able to shake off this labor market strength,” said Oanda analyst, Edward Moya. Double boooo…

One prominent US Fed official, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester, said:

“I don’t really see a compelling reason to pause rate hikes… I would see more of a compelling case for bringing the rates up and then holding for a while until you get less uncertain about where the economy is going.”

And that’s a trifecta on the booos right there.

Meanwhile, what’s doing over in Asian markets? Here you go, just the basic facts, Jack, at the time of writing it’s looking pretty green, actually:

Shanghai: +0.50%

Hang Seng: +0.68%

Nikkei: +0.32%

And in the wonderous, far-off land of magical internet money? Bitcoin is looking about as flat as Nullabor roadkill just at this present minute. It’s currently in a bit of a struggle to hang on to US$27k as we type.

If you’re a crypto trader/investor lately, it seems you’re never too far away from either pants-crapping AND moonshot, Lambo-buying revelations. Simultaneously. And those (lately) just seem to cancel each other out, keeping the sentiment in a dull Neutral zone on the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.

Source: alternative.me

For more crypto news, head over to Coinhead and this morning’s Mooners and Shakers column. It’s great.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for June 1 [intraday]:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

A couple of bull-goose standouts with decent volume so far today then…

• Redflow (ASX:RFX): +49% on the news the global clean-energy notable is set to supply a 20MWh battery system in California – one of the largest flow battery systems to be deployed in the US. More on that here.

• NeuRizer (ASX:NRZ) : +43% on the also-not-small news that the carbon-neutral energy firm is set to become a hydrogen producer in China. “NRZ has signed a binding contract with Meijin Energy Investments (MEI), part of the Meijin Group (Meijin), the largest integrated hydrogen company in China,” reads a report from the firm today.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for June 1 [intraday]:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

Read MoreMarkets

You might be interested in