Local markets are up at lunchtime today, with the benchmark holding reasonably steady either side of the +0.35% throughout the morning, while the Tech sector wanders aimlessly, like an old man whose lost his slippers, given up looking for them and meandered off in search of a cup of tea and maybe a biscuit if he’s lucky.

It’s mostly down to a sentiment boost in the US – which itself is a result of a relaxing oil market and easing bond yields – but there are some local companies putting in the hard yards this morning as well to brighten the day.

For some, however, today is something of a sombre one, as global entertainment giant Netflix shutters a once-core part of its business, with the final-ever iconic ‘Red Envelopes’ leaving Netflix distribution centres.

For those of you who might be too young to remember, there was a time when you had to leave the house in order to get a movie to watch at home.

In the early days (I’m talking mid-80s here), there were a smattering of local video shops, run by business owners who had seen the future, and realised that there was money to be made by charging money to lend out video cassette tapes.

In their infancy, it was the Wild West of entertainment – and, should you be lucky enough, as a kid it was perfectly fine to wander in, grab something R-rated, tell Joe behind the counter that “Dad asked me to grab this – he’s at work” and wander home with something grubby for you and your mates to snicker at.

Then Blockbuster happened. The little guys got squeezed out by the McDonalds of home entertainment, and finding the movie you wanted to watch became a race to the shops to beat everyone else to the limited supply of $4-a-night New Releases.

Or, conversely, you could – *shudder* – make friends with the sloe-eyed stoners who worked there, and they’d put a tape aside for you to pick up at your leisure.

It was a great system, except for the dreaded late fees. If, for whatever reason, you failed to get the tape back in time, you’d get pinged with all manner of fines and aggravation – a lesson my older sister and I learned in the mid-90s.

She borrowed a tape on our family account a few weeks before she abruptly flew to America to marry some yobbo she met on the internet. A week or so after she’d gone, I was denied by the video dude because we had outstanding late fees on an unreturned tape.

$64 worth – and climbing for every day the tape didn’t come back.

A week later, it was up near $100, and I had no idea where the video was, so I was forced to do the only sensible thing – change video stores.

Several months later, I found the missing tape, wedged under the passenger seat of my sister’s ageing sky-blue Holden Gemini. At this stage, my rough calculations suggested we owed the local Blockbuster nearly $1,000.

Of course, I got banned from the store – the irony of being punted under a grossly massive pile of debt by Blockbuster wouldn’t become apparent for a number of years.

But Netflix came along and changed all that, following the Great American creed of “Give Me Convenience, or Give Me Death”. Netflix would home deliver DVDs to you – you didn’t even need to get changed out of your PJs.

What a time to be alive.

That, of course gave way to the new Netflix model of forgoing the physical side of things, once the internet got fast enough that you could watch a movie in glorious 32 x 32 pixel resolution.

The most surprising thing about today’s revelation is that the mail-out DVD arm of Netflix was still operating – but with the closure of its five remaining distribution centres in California, Texas, Georgia and New Jersey, it is no more.

(A quick message to Blockbuster: I’ve still got that copy of Space Jam on VHS, and no, you can’t have it back.)

 

TO MARKETS

The Materials sector is having a banger today, way out in front of the market on +1.5%, thanks to some solid gains at the bulky end of the market, like South32 (ASX:S32) climbing 4.0%, and Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) , Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) and Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) all putting on more than 2.0% each today.

Everything else is looking a little flat, with recent hard charger Health Care languishing in bottom spot, down 0.4% or thereabouts.

 

asx winner CZR
Chart via Marketindex.com.au

 

Other big movers in Materials, but in the sub-$1 billion range, are all lithium players. I know, I know. What a shock, totally unexpected, nobody saw that coming, etc.

Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) has added an amazing 26.7% after releasing its annual report to shareholders, which says (and I’m paraphrasing, of course) “We sold thousands of tons of expensive stuff, we’ve got $158 million in the bank, we don’t owe nobody a penny, and there’s more lithium under our feet than we thought.”

Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA) is swinging around again like a shopping bag caught in a strong breeze, up 6.9% this morning, while Latin Resources (ASX:LRS) has put on 8.7% so far today.

 

NOT THE ASX

In the US overnight, the S&P 500 rose by +0.59%, the blue chips Dow Jones index was up by +0.35%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lifted by +0.83%.

The VIX index, sometimes called Wall Street’s fear index, fell 5% as stocks took a breather, bolstered by easing oil prices, Earlybird Eddy Sunarto reports.

Investors also reacted positively to reports that striking auto workers have now asked for less wage increases.

To stock news, the NYSE Fang + Index finished 1.2% higher.

Advanced Micro Devices jumped 5% after CEO Dr Lisa Su said the field of AI was more open than it might appear.

Peloton was up than 5% after the company announced a five-year deal with Lululemon that would see Lululemon steer customers to Peloton’s classes, while Peloton will sell co-branded Lululemon clothes.

Meanwhile, the US economy (GDP) grew less than expected – at a 2.1% annual pace in the June quarter, versus survey of 2.2%.

US jobless claims  for the week have risen slightly from the week prior to 204,000, compared with 215,000 expected.

In Japan, the Nikkei is down 0.11% this morning, on news that the Japanese government is preparing to dump the second round of gross nuclear water into the sea at Fukushima, on the basis that the first lot went into the sea weeks ago, and not one single Godzilla has emerged from the sea to lay waste to the city of Tokyo – therefore, it’s perfectly safe.

There’s no news from China or Hong Kong today, because it’s the annual Moon Festival holiday.

China will also be closed for most of next week, for the increasingly inaccurately-named National Day celebrations.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

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

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

CZR Resources (ASX:CZR) is leading the way at lunchtime, up 31.8% on news that the Pilbara Ports Authority (PPA) has reviewed the Port of Ashburton Consortium Joint Venture (PAC JV) Project Definition Document for the iron ore export facility and provided conditional support subject to EPA, Main Roads WA and Shire of Ashburton approvals.

Following its review, the PPA has agreed for the PAC JV to submit a Development Application for the POA Export Facility – consent that the company says “represents a significant development for the project”.

Biotron (ASX:BIT) is up more than 27% this morning, moving very rapidly on no news and catching the eye of the ASX Highway Patrol, who issued it a speeding ticket this morning to ask why BIT’s price has launched from a low of $0.032 to a high of $0.07 today.

Biotron delivered this comprehensive response to the ASX about 15 minutes before midday.

 

asx winner CZR
Excerpt from BIT response to ASX price query this morning.

 

Case closed, nothing to see here, etc etc.

And in third place (among small caps – I already mention Core Lithium earlier) is Forbidden Foods (ASX:FFF) , climbing nicely through 21% this morning after releasing its annual report to shareholders after hours last night.

It’s really long, so I’ve only managed to grab time to skim it, but from what I can see, FFF has spent the year repositioning itself in response to a variable market for its product, reducing costs and making healthier offerings.

However, revenue is down Yoy, $3,733,271 for FY23 against $6,581,489 for FY22 – but the company seems pretty upbeat about what the coming year will hold, and so do investors.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

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

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

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