How’s the post national-hol hangover going? Or by jingo by crikey, shouldn’t we even go there? Yeah, fair enough. One thing’s for sure, the ASX 200’s not showing too many signs of day-off dustiness so far today.
There are reasons for that. Our brown-trout-loving (not in a euphemistic sense, we assume) editor Pete “I Once Caught a Fish THIS Big” Farkers Farquhar gets into it here, but we’ll follow up on that a little further below.
The ASX is actually copy trading Wall Street’s overnight form decently so far. The US indices wrapped up well in the green, which is kinda remarkable considering one hapless person reportedly unintentionally singlehandly caused the entire US stock market to crash for about 20 minutes the other day.
Say what? Is the system really that fragile? Seems so. News.com.au reported something this morning that immediately made us feel slightly better about our own, many, daily life/work screw-ups. (Fell down two steps yesterday and broke my ankle, for instance. Spilt oily garlic prawns on wife’s nice white top, too.)
The “Wall Street employee” in question had a bad day on Thursday (Weds in New York). Very bad. So bad he or she might be scouring the job sites as we speak. (Or LinkedIn – is that where people search these days? Lemme know, ‘cos after that brown trout comment earlier, I might need the intel.)
Read the article above for the complete picture, but in a pecan nut shell (voted NYC’s favourite nut), here’s what happened.
In a Homer Simpson-esque move, the unnamed NYSE worker forgot to press a button or two and chaos ensued, with wild price swings, billions of dollars in market value seemingly erased and as a further result, trading being halted for dozens of big-cap stocks.
“Simpson” was supposed to turn off and on (or on and off?) the NYSE’s Cermak disaster-recovery database system. Something that’s apparently an important daily routine to keep everything in equilibrium. Nope, we clearly don’t understand it, but trust us, it’s important.
By way of explanation, News reported:
“The crux of the issue lies in the fact that by leaving the backup system running, the exchange’s computers thought that trading had not ceased from the day before.
“The chaos had flow-on effects which spread to Nasdaq, CBOE Global Markets and private venues. The total cost of the disaster is as yet unclear.”
Perhaps it was an Aussie, momentarily distracted while wrestling with national day public holiday ideology and wishing they could just tune in (guilt-free, on a mutually decided date that works for absolutely everybody) to the Hottest 100 while sinking something refreshing or three?
TO MARKETS
A quick scan of the Aussie benchmark tells us we, and Farkers, were right – this could prove to be a half-decent end to the week. It’s currently up 0.33% – bouncing around, sure, but threatening to move a bit higher.
Sector-wise, the vast majority are in good daily shape. Here’s how they’re looking, according to marketindex.com.au, with IT and Staples leading the way as Health Care still has the sniffles and Energy’s low on exactly that:
Looking around, then, for a specific scrap of somewhat large-cap intra-day positivity to feed you, we’re hearing Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) roar with a +7.47% gain.
We can’t actually discern much fresh news above the din, though.
What’s dipping? Some energy-related stonks (well, coal) are catching our eyes, including:
• New Hope Corporation (ASX:NHC) -7.24% and Yancoal Australia (ASX:YAL) -5.23% at time of key tapping.
And that’s also on no news in particular that we’re seeing, other than it being a pretty ordinary day for the sector, which is at least up 0.22% for the week, incidentally.
NOT THE ASX
Short of posting our editor’s entire Market Highlights wrap here verbatim, the general vibe from overseas markets is reasonably positive just at the moment.
As Chinese New Year celebrations and shutdowns remain a thing in several key Asian markets, the US has given the ASX a “solid lead” today, says Farkers, with the Dow up 0.61%, and the S&P 500 up 1.1%.
The tech-tastic Nasdaq closed even better – near 2% with Elon “Dogefather” Musk’s Tesla charging along at +10.97%, giving crap earnings estimates the middle finger. Apparently he’s been “acting like a normal CEO” for a change. Whatever that means.
Over in European markets, our man on the spot in France, Christian Edwards, tells us things are nice and lush and green overnight, too.
One more? Oh okay, then. Japan’s Nikkei appears to be wrecking the party just a tad. It’s down 0.04% at present.
Crypto? Come on, don’t forget about the wild west of finance, eh? There’s digital gold in them there hills, right?
Well… there might be, at least, for those who take some time to look into it. Risky and volatile as hell? Sure, no denials on that here.
Bitcoin (BTC) has just dipped under US$23k yet again from where Rob “Pls Come Back Gregor” Badman aka I, left it in the Mooners and Shakers roundup this morn. But it’s still up about 9% on the week.
Altcoins have been worth watching again, with several surging this week, too, including layer 1 protocols Fantom (FTM) and Aptos (APT), while Polygon (MATIC) has made its latest pump back into the top 10 cryptos by market cap.
ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for January 27 [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap LML Lincoln Minerals 0.069 50% 32,427,063 $26,449,250 BME Blackmountainenergy 0.045 41% 949,031 $1,760,000 CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.002 33% 1,185,798 $23,463,861 C1X Cosmosexploration 0.51 31% 2,026,704 $9,750,000 ELE Elmore Ltd 0.022 29% 3,091,742 $23,789,525 BKY Berkeley Energia Ltd 0.385 24% 1,247,301 $138,196,982 ETR Entyr Limited 0.022 22% 3,884,512 $27,138,619 BNZ Benzmining 0.52 21% 271,108 $31,950,412 RON Roninresourcesltd 0.15 20% 25,000 $3,624,762 CLE Cyclone Metals 0.003 20% 650,000 $15,291,842 LNU Linius Tech Limited 0.003 20% 755,556 $7,448,532 PUA Peak Minerals Ltd 0.006 20% 100,000 $5,206,883 AJQ Armour Energy Ltd 0.007 17% 714,285 $13,991,989 GNM Great Northern 0.0035 17% 410,398 $5,127,153 SVM Sovereign Metals 0.5 16% 887,538 $202,476,260 PGY Pilot Energy Ltd 0.0185 16% 15,043,543 $12,501,505 MEM Memphasys Ltd 0.015 15% 308,959 $12,473,765 PGM Platina Resources 0.023 15% 840,096 $12,463,607 CR9 Corellares 0.032 14% 374,890 $8,850,545 NES Nelson Resources. 0.008 14% 1,450,000 $4,120,160 OAU Ora Gold Limited 0.008 14% 70,000 $6,889,619 EWC Energy World Corpor. 0.048 14% 356,219 $129,314,692 88E 88 Energy Ltd 0.0125 14% 60,337,010 $200,923,393 ABV Adv Braking Tech Ltd 0.042 14% 3,076,167 $14,028,504 GMR Golden Rim Resources 0.035 13% 311,000 $12,164,144
Some winningest intra-day (so far) winners to round out an all-in-all pretty winning week:
• Lincoln Minerals: (ASX:LML): +50%. The graphite explorer is having some week. At +752%, that’s an understatement, actually. We recommend a delve elsewhere on our site for some decent explanation on why it’s been pumping so hard. Reubs and others know the score.
• Cosmos Exploration (ASX:C1X), with a 33% gain. What’s doin’? A shareholder-pleasing Quarterly Activities Report, that’s what.
Major highlight: “Conditional agreement to acquire the Corvette Far East Project, located in the prolific James Bay lithium province in Quebec, Canada.”
• One more – Black Mountain Energy (BME) +40%. Making a liar out of the dipping Energy sector as a whole, BME is also another standout surger as we type. A couple of days ago, this announcement came via the ASX: “Black Mountain acquires Earthstone Energy’s (NYSE: ESTE) interest in an existing oil and gas field in the Permian Basin.” You can learn more here.
ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS
Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for January 27 [intraday]:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap GLV Global Oil & Gas 0.001 -33% 6,956,058 $5,143,196 MGG Mogul Games Grp Ltd 0.001 -33% 8,546 $4,895,162 VIP VIP Gloves 0.003 -25% 2,085,960 $3,147,126 VPR Volt Power Group 0.0015 -25% 603,501 $21,432,416 CAI Calidus Resources 0.3 -22% 8,720,592 $169,101,690 CT1 Constellation Tech 0.004 -20% 1,000,000 $7,356,002 SPA Spacetalk Ltd 0.032 -20% 1,130,635 $10,247,974 MCT Metalicity Limited 0.0025 -17% 1,683,666 $10,476,118 OAR OAR Resources Ltd 0.005 -17% 27,048,273 $14,466,227 MHC Manhattan Corp Ltd 0.006 -14% 295,000 $10,683,951 MRL Mayur Resources Ltd 0.16 -14% 22,868 $54,300,556 TNY Tinybeans Group Ltd 0.23 -13% 5,000 $16,267,146 SHO Sportshero Ltd 0.014 -13% 1,355,124 $9,200,017 G50 Gold50Limited 0.175 -13% 88,428 $11,388,600 VMM Viridismining 0.21 -13% 5,000 $7,490,160 ADD Adavale Resource Ltd 0.021 -13% 1,779,730 $12,243,496 NMR Native Mineral Res 0.085 -12% 509,180 $11,218,035 MRQ Mrg Metals Limited 0.004 -11% 1,000,000 $8,936,634 CPM Coopermetalslimited 0.22 -10% 82,329 $10,049,900 WFL Wellfully Limited 0.018 -10% 10,101 $7,822,965 UNT Unith Ltd 0.029 -9% 279,235 $23,832,396 IPB IPB Petroleum Ltd 0.01 -9% 377,200 $5,020,069 IPT Impact Minerals 0.01 -9% 1,677,592 $27,295,076 MXC Mgc Pharmaceuticals 0.01 -9% 237,000 $31,524,321 VAL Valor Resources Ltd 0.005 -9% 125,043 $20,493,191