Local markets opened lower again this morning, after iron ore prices fell again overnight, dropping almost -2.0% to $104.20/t, further deepening the woes of the Resources sector and putting downward, insistent pressure on the top of the ASX’s head.

I’ll get into the details of it all shortly, but first to some utterly terrifying news out of New South Wales today, where a man has been ordered by local authorities to stop impersonating a paramedic.

The man, identified as Andreas Pantziaros, has twice been warned by police that he needed to unmodify the van he drives, after he reportedly modified it to look a lot like an actual NSW ambulance, complete with ‘Ambulance’ and ‘000 Emergency’ and other logos.

Pantziaros has been accused of offering health services through his company called Medic Corp Ambulance, but… they are services that he is reportedly unqualified to be providing.

That includes first aid training he has reportedly provided to other businesses in New South Wales, which is actually really concerning, considering that people’s lives could be on the line.

The NSW Health Commission says that Pantziaros “wore a formal uniform that had a strong resemblance to the NSW Ambulance paramedic uniform, which could easily mislead the public to believe he was a NSW paramedic”.

Which is why the commission has taken the unusual step of publicly announcing that Pantziaros “poses a risk to public health and safety and that protective orders are required in order to protect the public”.

“Mr Andreas Pantziaros is permanently prohibited from providing any health services, either in paid employment or voluntarily, including through any business or company, to any member of the public,” the commission said.

This cosplay stuff is really starting to get out of hand.

 

TO MARKETS

Local markets were facing an uphill battle this morning, after further falls in iron ore prices knocked even more wind out of the resources sector’s sails today.

Iron ore prices dipped about -2.0% overnight, and it shows – the market sectors look a very ugly red from top to bottom, with the exception of the Energy sector.

That’s largely due to a spike among the ASX-listed oilers and gassies this morning, which saw Woodside Energy Group (ASX:WDS) jump more than +2.0%, Karoon Energy (ASX:KAR) lift +1.3% and Santos (ASX:STO) rise by +1.0%.

And speaking of energy, electricity suppliers were given a bit of a dressing down by Anna Collyer, who is the chair of the Australian Energy Market Commission, who addressed the Australian Energy Week conference in Melbourne this morning to bang the drum about power company tactics that have caused concern among customers.

Collyer put forward some proposed changes to the rules, including forcing greater transparency for customers about changes to pricing structures and longer notice periods before any changes are implemented.

By lunchtime, the market sectors looked like this:

asx winner (RR1)
Chart via Marketindex.com.au

 

And the ASX indices looked like this:

Chart via Marketindex.com.au

 

And yea verily, there was much wailing, and gnashing of teeth, for the benchmark was once again heading in entirely the wrong direction.

 

NOT THE ASX

Things went fairly well in the US overnight, after a successful US$39 billion Treasury sale, prompting speculation that tonight’s US inflation report could provide further impetus for the Fed Reserve to consider a rate cut in September, Eddy Sunarto reported this morning.

By the end of the session, the S&P 500 rose by +0.27% to an all-time high, the blue chips Dow Jones index was down by -0.31%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lifted by +0.88% to its own record close.

“May’s CPI report looks to be encouraging, and will likely be followed by a string of similar reports this summer,” said Anna Wong at Bloomberg Economics. “That should set the stage for the Fed to start cutting rates in September.”

In US stock news, Apple – which noticeably dipped following the announcement that it was about to shoehorn OpenAI into absolutely everything it builds, whether you like it or not – rallied to a +7% gain overnight, reaching a new all-time high.

It’s not all good news for Apple, though – an antitrust lawsuit in the United States accusing the company of monopolising the smartphone market has had another four US states sign on, after Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington joined the 15 states that launched the legal action with the DOJ in March of this year.

Spotify rose slightly after unveiling a new premium subscription option tailored for its most dedicated users. This enhanced plan will come with a higher price point, offering better audio quality and innovative tools for playlist creation.

Eli Lilly rose slightly after its Alzheimer’s drug received favourable feedback from US drug regulatory advisers, who believe that its benefits outweigh the associated risks.

Boeing fell -2% despite reporting the delivery of 24 commercial jets, with 19 belonging to its 737 family aircraft, during the month of May.

In Asian market news, Japan’s Nikkei was labouring hard this morning, following news that an old lady was mauled by a bear while tending to a vegetable field in Gero, Gifu Prefecture.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng is down -1.31% despite an absence of old women being mauled by bears, so I’m not sure what’s happening there… but in Shanghai, the markets are up +0.09% after it turned out that a bear spotted stalking old women outside the markets this morning was actually just another old woman in a bear suit.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for 12 June [intraday]:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

Reach Resources (ASX:RR1) was way out in front on Wednesday morning, jumping more than +75% on news that it has bitten into high-grade niobium and REEs during the latest program of rock chip sampling at Wabli Creek, Gascoyne, Western Australia.

The company says that it has recorded samples up to 17.65% Nb2O5, 0.15% Y2O3, 10.81% Ta2O5, 31.39% TiO2, 0.37% TREO, chipped directly off in-situ bedrock at the site, and stack up well against previous alluvial sampling of 32% Nb2O5 and 2.57% TREO reported in December last year.

One Click Group (ASX:1CG) made headway on the heels of an investor presentation about its One Click Life financial services platform, revealing that the company has seen user growth of 83% to 120,000 users in CY23, which the company expects to continue with increased marketing spend in 2024.

BirdDog Technology (ASX:BDT) lifted on low volume this morning after announcing a selective buyback of 31.6 million shares, which is the totality of Home Made Robots’ interests in BirdDog and represents approximately 16.3% of BirdDog’s issued share capital.

And some big price-boosting news this morning from Inoviq (ASX:IIQ) is an announcement that the company’s Neuro-Net technology can isolate brain-derived exosomes in Alzheimer’s Disease.

I’ll let the company explain why it’s big, because they know what they’re talking about…

“Exosomes provide a ‘fingerprint’ of the health or disease status of the parent cell and can cross the ‘blood-brain barrier’, making them promising candidates as diagnostics for neurological diseases. The ability to weaponize exosomes and target them to cells is the end game for therapy and cure.”

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for 12 June [intraday]:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

ICYMI – AM EDITION

Anson Resources (ASX:ASN) has increased the size of its Ajana project in WA’s Mid-West region by 175% after pegging the adjacent tenement to advance its search for critical minerals.

Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ) has added rare earths to the lithium, tin and tantalum already known to be present at its Resende project in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state following successful stream sediment sampling.

Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR) is raising up to $4.2m through a partially underwritten non-renounceable rights issue to fund further gold and rare earths exploration at its Colosseum project.

The offer of 1 share priced at 1c each for every 3.5 shares held will be made to all holders of shares as of Monday, 17 June 2024.

Non-executive chairman Mark Johnson has already committed to take his full entitlement of ~$0.84m worth of shares while managing director Stephen Baghdadi has committed to taking up his entitlement of ~$0.57m worth of shares and to underwrite up to ~$0.177m worth of any shortfall.

Desoto Resources (ASX:DES) has uncovered four prospective copper-REE targets at the Spectrum project using advanced modelling.

Equinox Resources (ASX:EQN) has expanded its landholding at the Mata da Corda rare earths (REE) project in Brazil by 15% to almost 1000km2.

RareX (ASX:REE) review of 65,000m of gold-focused historical aircore drilling data has uncovered niobium enrichment up to 1,000ppm at its Khaleesi project in WA’s eastern Yilgarn region.

Riversgold (ASX:RGL) has identified historical copper intersections of up to 30.5m at 1.1% copper from exploration carried out in the 1970’s at Tambourah.

 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Anson Resources, Australian Mines, Dateline Resources, DeSoto Resources, RareX and Riversgold are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

Read MoreMarkets

Featured Companies

You might be interested in