“Some days are better than others,” sang U2’s Bono. No sh*t. The ASX200 might’ve had a decent day yesterday, but it opened Wednesday proceedings on a bit of a bum note. There’s still time to turn it around, mind.

(And, puts hand to reporter earpiece, news just in… our sources tell us it’s now moved back up into the green, with a fraction of a fraction of a percentage point rise.)

But the dippy start, notes Stockhead’s Eddy “I’m Never Eating Wollongong Kebabs Again” Sunarto, can be partly put down to the fact US financial soothsayers have fingered some entrails and spotted a 60% probability of a recession for the world’s biggest crumbling economy.

Maybe Bono can pen something profound around that for us.

In other news… maybe it’s time to buy a “budget” metal detector and move to Victoria? Because there’s clearly gold in them thar hills. In the “Golden Triangle” of land stretching between Ballarat, Bendigo and St Arnaud, to be precise.

As news.com.au and other media reports, an amateur prospector (who, probably very sensibly didn’t want to be named) has struck gold – a whopping great nugget worth $240,000.

Before launching into an off-key rendition of Spandau Ballet’s Gold, the jammy prospector decided he’d best get confirmation. And that came from pro evaluator Darren Kamp over at Lucky Strike Gold in Geelong. 

“He pulled this rock out of his backpack and as he dropped it in my hand he said, ‘Do you think there’s $10,000 worth in it’?” Kamp told NCA NewsWire.

“As soon as it hit my hand I said, ‘Try $100,000’.”

Kamp noted that the 2.6kg nugget was the biggest gold specimen he’s seen in his 43-year gold-industry career. Before, presumably closing up shop for the day and frantically loading up his ute with prospecting equipment.

“You see big specimens found by big companies underground … but to find it with a detector, it’s the biggest one I’ve seen,” he said.

 

TO MARKETS

Right, back to boring old charts and stats and whatnot. So, we said there was time to turn things around earlier. And at the time of writing, the ASX200 more or less (more, actually) has, with a fraction of a percentage point gain (+0.097%) since this time yesterday.

While that tells you virtually nothing, let’s dig into a few more sector specifics.

It seems Madonna has once again been proven correct in her assessment that we are living in a material world. Materials are up +1.02%. Incidentally, the veteran pop star is certainly more of a material girl than ever these days – have you seen her face lately?

Energy and Utilities are also up, while Financials are leading the daily losses and Health Care moves from a sickly day yesterday to a bedridden one today.

Source: marketindex.com.au

Zooming in tighter, here’s a couple of standouts catching our eyes today:

• Highfield Resources (ASX:HFR): +26% on the news that a construction licence has been granted for the Muga Mine’s process plant. This was the pending licence needed to begin the company’s full scale construction at Muga. More details > here. 

• Centaurus Metals Ltd (ASX:CTM): +8% on positive results of drilling at the Jaguar nickel sulphide project in northern Brazil. Full deets > here.

Not having such a remarkable 24 hours, meanwhile, are two techy stocks at the top of the daily losers’ list…

• Weebit Nano (ASX:WBT): -5.3%

• Megaport (ASX:MP1): -4.5%

 

NOT THE ASX

As mentioned, Wall Street closed in the red, partly based on the runny bottoms of US recession watchers. Maybe, like this baseball ump 1,000% needs to, they need to take a chill pill…

Because, you know, the US economy seems in pretty good hands right now…

Anyway, if you need specifics, the S&P500 closed at -0.16%, the Nasdaq finished at -0.45% and the Dow Jones -0.12%.

Over in China, at the time of writing, the Shanghai index is down 0.19%. In Japan, the Nikkei is +0.41%. And in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng is +1.11%.

As Stockhead’s very own, 1-of-1 non-fungible Eddy Sunarto notes in his Market Highlights wrap this morning, tech-related shares have been selling off, with Apple and Microsoft both taking about a 0.4% hit.

However, “Alibaba jumped 14% on the NYSE after announcing that it will split its US$220bn empire into six units as part of a massive restructuring,” he adds.

And speaking of things of Chinese-related interest, it appears that Hong Kong is advancing on its path to become a global crypto hub, with some of China’s leading banks helping to push the narrative.

Interesting timing, given the fact the Biden government seems intent on grabbing the US crypto industry by the hoodie and suffocating it into submission.

You’ll find more info on that, and even more, over at Mooners and Shakers – where money, and potentially gold 2.0 (that’d be a highly resilient Bitcoin), is magically borne of the internet.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for March 29 [intraday]:

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

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Standouts…

• Mamba Exploration (ASX:M24): +60% on an announcement that initial drilling has confirmed wide zones of clay REE mineralisation in 20 of 22 holes completed at the Hyden REE project about 300km east of Perth.

• Carnegie Clean Energy (ASX:CCE): +50%. Not sure if this has much to do with it, but Carnegie has delivered a speech overnight at the EuropeWave conference in Brussels, Belgium. The presentation outlined CETO technology, including target applications of the tech, and the company’s learnings. 

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for March 29 [intraday]:

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

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