Australian markets have opened on a rise this morning, holding steady as we head into lunch and it’s Critical Resources (ASX:CRR) on a charge at the top of Planet Small Caps. But first, some news from Old Blighty.

Straight off the bat, let’s make it very clear that we acknowledge the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is, obviously, a huge bummer.

But we’d like you to spare a thought for the people who have to run the logistics behind what is essentially the Political Society Event of the Century, as the world prepares for The Queen’s final farewell.

Because Her Majesty’s funeral is, hands-down, the hottest ticket in town. If you can imagine if they ran the Melbourne Cup through the middle of the Super Bowl with the finish line in a morgue, you’d be close to understanding why it’s set to be this month’s place to be seen.

The list of other heads of state wanting to pack into Westminster Abbey to send her off is, as a result, rather long. So long, in fact, that travel arrangements are turning out to be a bit of an issue.

Britain has issued an edict (something Britain’s very good at) asking all world leaders to forgo the use of private jets to fly into the UK (something most heads of state are not very good at).

We’re picturing Joe Biden sandwiched in between two 400-pound mid-westerners in an Economy-Plus seat, right by the toilets at the back so the entire journey is punctuated by wafts of Eau de Open Sewer while a hyperactive child in the seat behind relentlessly kicks his kidneys into submission for the entire seven hours flight.

Australia’s doing its part, helping out a few of the smaller Pacific nations with travel assistance to attend the service. It’s unclear whether Albo’s booked a Maxi-Taxi so they can all travel together, but it’s a decently safe bet that Jetstar will be coming to the party. Eventually.

We look forward to the announcement that Our National Carrier is offering the use of one of its planes to get Team Asia-Pacific to the gig – and that the airline is only going to have to lay off 20 or 30 more workers to cover the cost of the flight.

Once there, though, due to the fact that London traffic flows about as freely as meatloaf through a straw, the various dignitaries are going to be herded onto buses – buses! – to get to and from the church.

It’s a major step down for almost all of the world leaders, a security nightmare (because every bad action movie starts with all the world leaders in one improbably small space), and we reckon the fight over who gets to hog the whole back seat is going to be brutal.

 

TO MARKETS

Australian markets were off to a solid running start this morning, with the benchmark dashing to a +0.6% gain at the sound of the alarm clock. Then it wandered around the house for a bit until sitting around +0.54% while choosing what to have for lunch.

InfoTech (-0.35%) and Health Care (-1.05%) have taken a bit of a hiding this morning, while Energy (+1.46%, Utilities (+1.11%) and Materials (+0.91%) have piled on a slick little triple-play to lead us all to greener pastures.

There are two Large Caps in the winner’s circle so far today – Chalice Mining is up 7.42%, continuing the climb it kicked off when it announced a potential extension to its Gonneville gold project.

Chalice also filed paperwork in Canada to rid itself of the need to keep sending postcards to Ontario to keep everyone informed of what it’s up to, which it’s been required to continue doing despite its voluntary delisting from the Toronto Stock Exchange in December 2019.

Meanwhile, Ioneer’s (ASX:INR) recent pogo-stick action is also still a thing, with the lithium digger regaining its recent lost ground today, adding 6.5% in morning trade.

And a bit to unpack but well worth mentioning: Ramsay Health Care (SAX:RHC) has had a bumpy old time of late, and today’s no exception. It called for a trading pause today after it received a letter from a consortium of financial investors led by KKR, about a conditional, non-binding, indicative proposal to acquire 100% of the shares in Ramsay by way of a scheme of arrangement.

It’s the second offer from KKR. The first one for $88 per share failed to proceed and was withdrawn on 26 August, with KKR “remaining committed” to a Plan B for 100% of the company at a value of $78.20 cash and approximately 0.22 Ramsay Santé shares for each Ramsay share in excess of 5,000 shares.

In the absence of the consortium being able to offer any improvement to that, Ramsay’s withdrawn from the talks, and it’s now trading down ~11.0% since open.

Time for a look at what’s happening around the world.

 

NOT THE ASX

While not as nifty as Friday arvo’s top-shelf effort, Wall Street still managed to back it up on Monday with another positive run.

The S&P added +1.06%, the Dow shuffled it’s zimmer frame forward 0.71% and the Nasdaq punched out the dub, adding 1.27% because it can’t help but be a high achiever.

This morning, it was Christian’s turn to roll outta bed and report on what the US was up to, skulking about in the dark while the rest of us slept – and it turns out that US long and short bond yields spiked overnight, to 3.35% for the 10-year, and 3.55% for the 2-year.

All eyes will be on the latest read on US inflation, with the August data set to be released tonight, our time. This is the dataset that the US Fed is going to point to when it meets in September to talk interest rates.

But it’s almost a foregone conclusion at this point – it’s been a near-endless parade of big-mouthed American Men of Action and Finance over the past few weeks, all of them ultra-hawkish on a 75 basis point rise to the point where shutting them up has proven impossible.

Whether the US War on Inflation is winnable remains to be seen but if it’s anything like the rest of the wars the US seems to enjoy declaring, this one seems doomed to last longer than Vietnam, but with an even crappier soundtrack.

In Asia, Hong Kong and China came back to work today, bellies bulging with mooncake, to move lethargically into positive territory, Shanghai adding +0.14% and Hong Kong rising +0.56%, while Japan got in on the act as well, up +0.33%.

At the commodities desk, oil and gas are moving in the same directions as yesterday, with the gooey stuff down 0.76% and the smelly stuff up 1.75%.

Shiny things are also on the move, with gold (-0.41%) and silver (-1.36%) not having a happy Tuesday, while copper’s barely registered a blip, adding 0.1% before lunch.

In the Curious world of Crypto, something called Ravencoin is putting paid to its brooding Emo image, racking up huge gains because – apparently – that’s what all the cool Proof-of-Stake stuff is doing right now.

As always, Rob “Give the Poe Man a Break” Badman has all the rest of the news from that particular reality over at Mooners and Shakers.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for September 13 [intraday]:

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It’s Materials stacked up top of the winners’ table this morning, and resting at the top is Critical Resources (ASX:CRR), rocketing off to a very handsome 38.0% gain on news that it’s bitten deep into thick, high-grade intercepts, with sections of exceptionally high-grade lithium oxide at Mavis Lake.

The numbers look like this:

  • 24.1m @ 1.62% Li2O, from 53m;
  • 8.15m @ 1.70% Li2O from 89m
    • including 1.0m @ 4.32% Li2O from 91m;
  • 8.70m @ 2.18% Li2O from 112.75m; and
  • 23.9m @ 1.55% Li2O from 112.75m
    • including 11.15m @ 2.28% Li2O from 112.75m
    • including 7.05m @ 2.77% Li2O from 129.35m
    • Including 3.80m @ 3.09% Li2O from 131m

Meanwhile Dalaroo Minerals has added several more Dollary-Doos to its Dollarmite Savings Account, climbing 19.0% this morning after yesterday’s news of multiple lead-zinc sulphide intersections first drill program at Browns in Gascoyne.

Those numbers look like this:

  • 16m @ 0.72% Pb, 0.35% Zn and 2g/t silver (Ag) from 32m including 8m @ 1.1% Pb and 2.50 g/t Ag from 36m; and
  • 28m @ 0.41 % Pb, 0.20% Zn from surface including 8m @ 0.75% Pb, 0.20% Zn and 1.25g/t Ag from 16m.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for September 13 [intraday]:

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