Local markets are down this morning, with the benchmark sagging 0.2% in early trade as the market absorbed negative pre-data sentiment from both Wall Street and Europe overnight.

I’ll get into the details shortly, but first there’s a story from the Wonderful World of Whales that has raised more than a few eyebrows, following the release of a new study into the sex lives of humpbacks.

While scientists have known for quite some time that whales need to do the nasty in order to make newer, smaller whales, no one had actually managed to observe two humpback whales gettin’ their freak on.

But according to research published in the Marine Mammal Science journal, that changed in 2022 when – after decades of lurking around trying to cop an eyeful of whale dong – science voyeurs Lyle Krannichfeld and Brandi Romano finally managed to document a male humpback getting down to business, with his prodigious appendage on full and glorious display.

It was a landmark moment in the study of these majestic creatures, and the moment was only made slightly awkward when researchers realised that the horny humpback they were observing was, in fact, boning another male.

Yep – decade upon decade of trying to visually document a couple of girthy mammals making the beast with two humpbacks, and when it finally happened, it’s a couple of dudes turning the waters off Maui into a Grindr hotspot of epic proportions.

Godspeed, you giant horny bastards. Godspeed.

 

TO MARKETS

Local markets have dipped because things were a little subdued on Wall Street and in Europe, as investors gathered caution around themselves like old-timey thick woollen skirts ahead of crucial US inflation data.

That sentiment infected local markets when things began today, with investors migrating slowly towards the usual safe havens and current market darling tech offerings in a bid to keep the money train chugging along.

By midday, though, the lust for gold had waned somewhat, leaving the XGD All Ords Gold index down below zero, and pushing the tech index to the top of the ladder.

 

asx today (NYR)
Chart via Markentindex.com.au

Real Estate and Consumer Discretionary were also faring reasonably well throughout the session in the morning, with Materials, Utilities and Energy dragging the market lower as the morning wore on.

The other big news of the morning is a surge for Bitcoin, which smashed through the US$60,000 mark for the first time, as a combination of wider adoption by investors and the upcoming planned “halving” – a built-in mechanism that is designed to boost scarcity for miners by making it harder to produce – lit a fire under the digital currency’s butt.

At the time of writing, BTC was at US$61,423.00, off slightly from overnight highs.

 

NOT THE ASX

On Wall Street overnight, the S&P 500 fell by -0.18%, the blue chips Dow Jones index was down by -0.12%, and tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled by -0.48% as investors got all coy ahead of US CPI data that’s due to drop later tonight.

No one is expecting any massive surprises, and the current feeling is that whichever way things go with that data, it will signpost what lies ahead for interest rates in the US, in relation to when the Fed will start its easing program.

Boston’s Fed Reserve boss Susan Collins reiterated her stance on rate cuts, saying: “I believe it will likely become appropriate to begin easing policy later this year” – which is about as insightful as saying that she believes that it’s likely to become appropriate to have a shower sometime between now and Christmas.

In US stock news, Coinbase traded slightly higher despite an outage that caused temporary errors in buying or selling cryptos on the platform.

Beyond Meat soared +33% as the plant-based meat producer laid out its turnaround plan. The stock price has crumbled like a chickpea “steak” some -44% over the past year.

eBay climbed +8% on solid Q4 results, while Salesforce and Macy’s are on the docket to report their earnings.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei has edged lower in morning trade, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is lower as well but Shanghai markets are bucking the regional trend, up 0.26% wgh4en things kicked off this morning.

 

WINNERS

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Out in front today, to probably no one’s surprise, is medical minnow Nyrada, which has piled another 50% jump this morning on top of yesterday’s 421% bonanza.

Cue Energy Resources (ASX:CUE) was up early in the morning after delivering its half-year report, showing a 22% increase in revenue to $29.3 million, and an underlying EBITDAX of $19.3 million, up 21%, and a 34% NPAT increase to $9.1 million.

Noxopharm (ASX:NOX) was continuing its recent run of good form, up another 28.2% after it banked some happy 1HFY24 results news yesterday.

Ardea Resources (ASX:ARL) and its Japanese consortium partners have reached an agreement on the scope and budget for the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project – Goongarrie Hub Definitive Feasibility Study. The Consortium has advised Ardea that they have completed their due diligence, and a final investment decision is in the works.

Norfolk Metals (ASX:NFL) is up this morning after delivering an upbeat projects update for its copper-gold play in Tasmania, and an expansion to its uranium exploration in South Australia.

 

LOSERS

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ICYMI – AM Edition

Pantera Minerals (ASX:PFE) has completed its acquisition of Daytona Lithium, meaning the Superbird lithium brine project in Arkansas is now officially under its control.

Superbird has a conceptual exploration target of 436,000t to 2.966Mt of contained lithium carbonate equivalent within the project’s 50,000 acre exclusive abstract area and is based on lithium concentrations ranging between 225 mg/L and 450 mg/L, with a median value of 338 mg/L.

Pantera’s total 13,457-acre play in the Arkansas Smackover lithium brine district sits adjacent and on trend from where Exxon Mobil has drilled multiple lithium brine wells and is planning to build a large processing facility.

Aura Energy (ASX:AEE) now has a high level of confidence its Tiris uranium project in Mauritania will deliver excellent economic returns following completion of the key front end engineering design (FEED) study.

Tiris looms as a potentially globally significant, near-term uranium operation capable of generating a post-tax NPV of US$366 million and IRR of 44%. Estimated capex is a relatively low US$230 million with payback achieved in just 2.5 years.

Completion of the FEED study comes as the company continues extensional drilling aimed at growing the current contained resource of 58.9Mlb U3O8 towards the magical 100Mlb mark.

Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) has received the final assays from Phase 1 drilling at its Sandy Mitchell project in North Queensland, confirming rare earths and heavy mineral were intercepted in every metre sampled.

These latest assays also upgrade the project’s TREO-yttrium-scandium content reported earlier this week from 498.7ppm to 510.5ppm, with a maximum grade of 3,525ppm.

A maiden resource for Sandy Mitchell is expected later this year and will form the basis of a PFS to be prepared in collaboration with third-party mineral specialists.
 
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Pantera Minerals, Aura Energy and Ark Mines are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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