The ASX bounced back from yesterday’s 1% loss, up today by 0.45%, led by rates sensitive sectors Tech and Real Estate.

 

Source: Market Index

 

These two sectors gained traction after remarks from Fed Reserve Chair Jerome Powell overnight, who said the central bank still expects to cut rates this year.

However, Powell concedes that the Fed has time to assess more incoming data before doing so.

“We do not expect that it will be appropriate to lower our policy rate until we have greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably down toward 2 per cent,” he told the Stanford University audience overnight.

Goldies also rallied today, buoyed by the hot bullion price, which has touched US$2,300 an ounce, its all time high, on anticipation of rate cuts.

“It’s remarkable that gold has not only remained resilient but has actually reached new highs. Gold has always been a global asset, and now, the largest buyers of gold are non-US central banks,” gold expert Bob Haber told Forbes.

Copper and silver stocks also got some attention today, as the three-month copper futures price reached a 12-month high of US$8,991/t, on strong demand and supply tightness.

 

Not the ASX

Elsewhere in the region, Taiwan has a national holiday today and has begun a recovery effort from the devastating 7.4 earthquake that killed almost 100 people.

The country’s biggest company, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which is also the main producer of advanced chips for Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp., said it would resume production in less than 24 hours.

Other stock markets in Asia were mainly in the green today, but the market anxiously awaits Friday’s US jobs data that could offer new clues on the US monetary policy outlook.

 

Winners in the large cap space today

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Cochlear (ASX:COH) gained 1% after the competition watchdog, the ACCC, said it will not oppose Cochlear’s proposed acquisition of the cochlear implants business of Oticon Medical A/S from its parent company, Demant A/S.

Initially in 2022, when the acquisition was first proposed, the ACCC had significant competition concerns.

“The transaction has now been changed to remove the bone conduction solutions business, which addresses the significant concerns the ACCC had in relation to bone conduction solutions,” ACCC Commissioner Stephen Ridgeway said today.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Today’s best performing small cap stocks:

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Cycliq (ASX:CYQ) announced new product news that has investors excited about the future of riding bikes. It’s called the Fly-6 Pro, and it’s a headlight/4K Camera combo unit that has a list of features that far outstrips anything I thought would ever be needed on a bicycle headlight… but, it’s 2024, and if your gadget can connect to the internet and broadcast you riding full-tilt into a car door in the middle of the CBD, then it’s probably going to fly off the shelves.

RooLife Group (ASX:RLG) announced a proposed placement to China-based e-commerce and supply chain business, Fujian Jushi Supply Chain Management Co., at a proposed placement price of $0.0085 per fully paid ordinary share.

Blinklab (ASX:BB1) – “a company focused on developing new smartphone-based AI-powered mental healthcare solutions” – made its market debut at midday toda. The stock closed the day at 25.5c, up 27.5% on the listing price of 20c.

Kula Gold (ASX:KGD) has reported results of a recent rock chipping and mapping programme in the vicinity of the historical Camilleri/Donnybrook Mine with an assay result of up to 11.19g/t gold, which is pretty juicy.

Westar Resources (ASX:WSR) announced it has commenced a detailed review of historic gold exploration activities as a first step in unlocking the gold potential at the Mindoolah Mining Centre, which is part of the Company’s Mindoolah project in Western Australia’s Murchison Region.

Hillgrove Resources (ASX:HGO) has completed the second copper production campaign from the Kanmantoo underground copper mine. The copper production has ramped up from 239 tonnes in February to 589 tonnes in March. The next two-week milling campaign is underway, with copper sales planned next week. The. copper price has risen above US$4/lb for the first time since April 2023. 

Geopacific Resources (ASX:GPR) says detailed exploration assessment has identified known mineralisation and priority drill targets, with strong potential to increase the existing 1.56Moz Woodlark Resource. These new target areas are all close to the current Resources, and the known mineralisation in each remains open and largely untested.

Pioneer Lithium (ASX:PLN) announced that it has applied for 37 tenements for a total of 73,061ha in Bahia state in Brazil, prospective for Rare Earths. The newly defined ‘Verde Valor’ Project will complement Pioneer Lithium’s other critical minerals projects. The company considers the Verde Valor Project a valuable addition to its lithium tenements in Ontario, Canada.

Lithium stock Winsome Resources (ASX:WR1) revealed it’s entered into a binding agreement with Canadian company Stornoway Diamonds. And that comes amid securing an exclusive option to acquire the assets comprising the Renard diamond mine, processing facility and associated infrastructure – that is, all of the issued capital in Stornoway. Renard is situated just about 60km south (in a straight line) from Winsome’s 59 million tonne Adina lithium resource.

Auking Mining (ASX:AKN) had an update on its Saudi interests today, revealing it, and BSMC (a  subsidiary of the Segia Gulf Group) have been invited to participate in the fifth Licensing Round for certain prospective exploration projects by the Saudi Arabian government.

Marquee Resources (ASX:MQR) is picking up rocks containing up to 3% lithium at the West Spargoville project, a JV with miner Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN).

In mid end of town, Imugene (ASX:IMU) has received a Notice of Grant from the Chinese Patent Office, following earlier grants in Japan and South Korea. The granted claims protect its oncolytic virotherapy CF33, including VAXINIA and CHECKvacc. CF33 is a chimeric vaccinia poxvirus from the lab of inventor Professor Yuman Fong at City of Hope,  a noted expert in the oncolytic virus field.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Today’s best performing small cap stocks:

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT – PM Edition

Anson Resources (ASX:ASN) drilling confirms that the clastic zones at its Green River project are geologically similar to those at its flagship Paradox lithium project.

Environmental Clean Technologies (ASX:ECT) has signed an MoU with ESG Agriculture relating to the offtake of blended COLDry feedstock suitable for a granulated soil health product.

Haranga Resources (ASX:HAR) metallurgical testwork has successfully extracted >96% of the U3O8 content using sulphuric acid. This comes ahead of a upgrade to the current resource of 12.4Mt @ 587ppm eU3O8.

Kula Gold’s (ASX:KGD) rock chip sampling and mapping work has returned up to 11.19g/t gold, highlighting the gold prospectivity of its Brunswick project in WA

Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R) has received firm commitments for a $1.7m placement to progress exploration work aimed at proving up critical minerals and gold deposits at its Bangemall and Gidji projects.

New Age Exploration (ASX:NAE) is acquiring the Wagyu gold project that is just 9km down the road from De Grey Mining’s (ASX:DEG) 10.5Moz Hemi intrusive-hosted gold deposit. Identified targets will be further refined using geophysical and geochemical exploration to set the stage for a proposed drill program.

Ora Banda Mining (ASX:OBM) continues to progress development of its Riverina underground mine in WA’s Goldfields region with a further 1,711m of stoping work completed in the March quarter.

Pure Hydrogen (ASX:PH2) has sold its 30% stake in the Serowe CBM project in Botswana to operator Botala Energy (ASX:BTE) for $750,000 in cash and 14.5 million BTE shares to focus on its hydrogen business.

QEM’s (ASX:QEM) collaboration with the University of Queensland has successfully extracted extremely high purity vanadium pentoxide (99.93%) from industrial waste, confirming the viability of recycling spent catalyst to produce V2O5 suitable for producing the electrolyte used in vanadium flow batteries.

Torque Metals (ASX:TOR) has started a 6,500m reverse circulation and diamond drilling program at its Paris gold project in WA’s Goldfields region to bring further clarity to the rich potential of the site which contains a strike zone of 2.5km by 1km just 12 km southeast of the St Ives gold mine.

 

TRADING HALTS

Toro Energy (ASX:TOE) – pending the release of an announcement by the Company regarding a potential demerger.

Tennant Minerals (ASX:TMS) – pending the release of an announcement in relation to a capital raising.

Elixir Energy (ASX:EXR) – ending an announcement by the Company with respect to a development at Daydream-2.

AnteoTech (ASX:ADO) – pending an announcement by the Company concerning a capital raising.

Enova Mining (ASX:ENV) – pending an announcement by Enova Mining in relation to a capital raising.

 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Anson Resources, Environmental Clean Technologies, Haranga Resources, Kula Gold, Miramar Resources, New Age Exploration, Ora Banda Mining, Pure Hydrogen, QEM and Torque Metals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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