• Aussie stocks ended… meh, despite Wall Street edging up ahead of Nvidia’s report
  • Inflation eased to 3.5pc, impacting rate cut predictions
  • Fortescue and Flight Centre reported gains; Woolworths and Tabcorp faced losses

 

Aussie stocks closed the day pretty much right where they began overall – up the teensiest of fractions, by 0.0025%, with the Energy, Mining and Communication sectors lagging, but Staples largely saving the day.

This comes as Wall Street closed slightly higher overnight, with investors awaiting Nvidia’s upcoming quarterly report later today.

Source: Market Index

 

Local traders assessed the latest CPI report, which shows that inflation has decreased to 3.5% in July.

This reading was a drop from 3.8% in June but higher than the consensus of 3.4%, and it will be the final inflation update before the RBA’s next meeting on September 24. 

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) attributed the CPI’s decline to the federal government’s $300 energy bill relief rebate, which has lowered household electricity costs by up to $75 per quarter. 

But some analysts are sceptical.

“If the rebate was removed from the calculation of the CPI, inflation was not going down, it’s going sideways,” said Warren Hogan at Judo Bank.

Josh Gilbert at eToro said the CPI reading reinforces Michele Bullock’s recent hawkish tone.

“Although this reading isn’t necessarily a reason to panic and shows that inflation is abating, it highlights that the easing of monetary policy isn’t likely to happen in the short term.”

The Australian dollar climbed to 68¢ from 67.80¢ following the report.

Aussie bond traders also slightly lowered their expectations for an interest rate cut, now estimating only a 50:50 chance of a reduction in November, compared to 60% before the report. Despite this, they still expect a cut by December.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ether retreated this afternoon, while bank stocks and gold stocks were mostly higher. 

The bullion price has come off slightly from its record high of US$2,531, trading now at US$2,513.95 an ounce. 

 

Today’s earnings season highlights

The earnings season continues on the ASX today.

Fortescue (ASX:FMG) fell 2% despite reporting an 8% rise in revenue to US$18.2 billion for FY24, and a 7% increase in underlying EBITDA to US$10.7 billion. 

Net profit after tax also grew by 3% to US$5.7 billion. The final dividend per share decreased by 11% to $0.89, but the total dividend per share was up 13% to $1.97. 

Looking ahead, Fortescue expects iron ore shipments to range between 190 to 200 million tonnes, including 5 to 9 million tonnes from Iron Bridge. Production costs are however forecasted to rise to between US$18.50 and US$19.75 per tonne. 

The company’s future performance will heavily depend on iron ore prices, which are currently below US$100 per tonne. 

FMG fell by over 1% today. 

Woolworths (ASX:WOW)‘s annual profit plunged 97% on the back of a one-off write-down of its  New Zealand grocery business Foodland, which it acquired almost a decade ago.

The retailer reported a $781 million loss for the year due to two large write-downs, but its core profits have increased thanks to higher sales and improved profit margins in online groceries.

The WOW share price rose by 3%. 

Tabcorp (ASX:TAH) plunged by 15% after announcing an additional $533.2 million write-down, bringing the total to $1.4 billion in write-downs this year. 

Tabcorp attributed the write-downs to reduced gambling activity and smaller bets as a result of stricter regulations.

The company reported a statutory net loss after tax of $1,359.7 million, which includes $1,376.4 million in non-cash impairment charges and $11.3 million in other significant items. 

The final dividend is 0.3 cents per share, unfranked.

And, Flight Centre (ASX:FLT) has doubled its underlying net profit after tax to $230 million, thanks to record transaction volumes and better margins. 

The company reported a total transaction value of $23.74 billion, surpassing pre-COVID levels, and saw revenue rise by 18% to $2.72 billion.

Flight Centre is rewarding shareholders with $88 million in dividends, including a final payout of 30 cents per share.

The FLT share price rose by almost 2% today.

 

What else is happening?

Across the region, most Asian stock markets fell on Wednesday due to disappointing Chinese earnings, with the mainland benchmark hitting lows not seen since February. 

Shares of major Chinese companies like Cnooc, BYD, and Meituan all fell as weak results heightened concerns about the economy. 

Hong Kong stocks dropped over 1%, while Japanese and South Korean markets also faced losses.

In Japan, Sony’s shares rose 2% on news of a price increase for the PlayStation 5.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Today’s best performing small cap stocks:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

Felix Gold (ASX:FXG) has uncovered high grades of antimony after retesting assays from drilling carried out in 2022 and 2023 that were previously only targeted for gold. It is now considering standalone, antimony production

Dart Mining (ASX:DTM) rose after the company issued an open invitation to investors to a webinar, where the company will be talking about the acquisition of the Triumph Gold Project as announced on ASX on 27 August.

City Chic Collective (ASX:CCX) was up after announcing FY24 sales revenue of $131.6m (down 28.3% on FY23), which has led to an underlying EBITDA loss of $8.4m, which is a 47.3% improvement on FY23 and 9.8% ahead of proforma forecast, and also the departure of the company’s Chief Financial Officer Peter McClelland, who is leaving the company in mid-October.

ENRG Elements (ASX:EEL) rose on news that it has completed the acquisition of the Lamont Lake uranium exploration project in Saskatchewan, Canada, which is a highly prospective uranium province and favourable operating jurisdiction.

Estrella Resources (ASX:ESR) was climbing, but went into a halt before lunch ahead of a capital raising.

Pantera Minerals (ASX:PFE) was up on news that the company is set to access a Smackover production well and a disposal well allowing for potential DLE pilot plant location, to produce lithium brine. Work is expected to begin imminently, and the company says a re-entry well will provide brine samples for Lithium grade analysis and Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) process testing.

WIN Metals (ASX:WIN) was up after announcing plans to acquire the Palm Springs Gold Project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia from Meteoric Resources via a tenement sale agreement, which boasts an already established high-grade mineral resource of some 357,000oz (5.6Mt @ 2.0g/t) of gold based around two resource area, and produced 52,000oz produced between 1995 and 1997.

ECS Botanics (ASX:ECS) announced its annual results, showing revenue of $20.5 million – up 31% on pcp, delivering NPAT of 2.0 million, up a bumper 305% on pcp. The company was also celebrating a bumper crop 6.6 tonnes, up 57% on pcp with sell-through initiatives in place, and has begun construction on 9 new Protective Crop Enclosures.

Canterbury Resources (ASX:CBY) gained Wednesday morning on news of “outstanding” drilling results from large-scale Briggs copper-molybdenum project in central Queensland, including a bumper 276m at 0.45% Cu and 24ppm Mo from surface, with around 50% of that mineralisation occurring beyond the current boundary of the site’s existing inferred mineral resource.

Sun Silver (ASX:SS1 has jumped through the roof after releasing a 45% upgrade to its Maverick Springs project in Nevada to a world-class 423Moz silver equivalent resource. Demand for the shiny metal is surging on the back of growth in industrial uses, primarily in solar PV cells, leading to spot prices increasing 23% since the start of the year to almost US$30/oz.

A comprehensive review of existing drill data and remodelling of the resource led to the upgrade with the inclusion of the entire mineralised domain at the project, which is deemed to have reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction.

And, desktop studies are underway at Critical Resources (ASX:CRR)’s Hillgrove South prospect at the explorer’s Halls Peak project in NSW. CRR is aiming to define high-priority targets that may be an extension of Larvotto Resources’ (ASX:LRV) Hillgrove deposit 6km away, which currently hosts a 7.264Mt at 1.3% Sb for 93kt of contained antimony. The project is along the major Chandler fault, which runs between Halls Peak and Hillgrove in the New England Fold Belt in NSW.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Today’s worst performing small cap stocks:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Alma Metals’ (ASX:ALM) infill drilling at its Briggs copper project have delivered initial assays which highlight significantly enhanced copper grades close to surface. This included a thick intersection of 276m grading 0.45% copper from surface.

Blue Star Helium (ASX:BNL) has attracted AIM-listed Helium One as a farm-in partner for its Galactica/Pegasus project in Colorado. Helium One will pay up to US$1.5m for the drilling of six development wells to earn a 50% stake in the project.

Corella Resources (ASX:CR9) is set to embark on a first ever drilling campaign targeting rare earth and pegmatite targets at the company’s underexplored tenure in WA’s Yilgarn region. The combined aircore/RC drill program is supported by a drill for equity commitment from Westside Drilling.

EZZ Life Science Holdings (ASX:EZZ) has reported record revenue of $66.4m in FY24, up 78.9% on the previous corresponding period thanks in part to the launch of 21 new products along with new distribution channels.

Far East Gold (ASX:FEG) has raised a further $1.75m through a strongly supported share purchase plan for existing shareholders. Adding to the $2.3m raised in the recent institutional placement, the company has now raised >$4m for exploration across its three Indonesian assets.

Greenvale Energy (ASX:GRV) has signed a binding heads of agreement with Gempart to acquire an initial 80% interest in the highly prospective Douglas River uranium project, where two high-order radiometric anomalies prospective for sandstone-hosted mineralisation have already been identified.

Race Oncology (ASX:RAC) has said that FY2024 was a momentous year that saw it make significant strides toward advancing its new bisantrene formulation RC220 into human clinical trials. Preclinical work has demonstrated its potent cancer killing effects.

Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) has started a hydraulic mining trial at the Kasiya pilot site as part of the ongoing optimisation study at the world class rutile project in Malawi. Results from this trial will be compared with the successful dry mining trial.

Initial assays from surface diamond drilling at Spartan Resources’ (ASX:SPR) Pepper prospect has returned a stunning 27.01m intersection grading 39.15g/t gold, the best intersection seen to date at its Dalgaranga project.

Sun Silver (ASX:SS1) now has the largest ASX’s largest development-stage primary silver resource after upgrading the silver only inventory at its Maverick Springs project by 43.7% to 253Moz. Overall inferred resources were also increased by 45% to 423Moz silver equivalent.

Torque Metals’ (ASX:TOR) diamond drilling program at the Paris project in WA’s Goldfields region has returned thick, high-grade hits including 2.7m at 82.45g/t gold. The drilling also indicated that project mineralisation extends into shallower zones.

Viridis Mining & Minerals’ (ASX:VMM) drilling has extended the Cuprim South high-grade zone within its Colossus rare earths project in Brazil. Results from the latest batch of assay results included up to 15,339ppm TREO.

White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) has highlighted the potential of its Great Bear project in northern Canada after finding possibly the highest-grade rock chip assay in recent history of 7.54% silver. The discovery was made 550m along strike from two historical silver mines within the underexplored Slider prospect.

Anson Resources (ASX:ASN) has submitted its notice of intent to the US Bureau of Land Management and the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining for the drilling of 24 exploration holes at its Yellow Cat uranium and vanadium project.

This drilling will test the 2km strike extension following the east-west mineralised trend striking from the Windy Point mine to the Mineral Treasure mine. Sampling has previously yielded values of up to 10.33% U3O8 and 25.6% vanadium pentoxide.

Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI) has reached a conditional agreement to sell its Palm Springs gold project in WA’s Kimberley region to WIN Metals (ASX:WIN) for up to $5m. WIN has already made a $50,000 deposit and will pay a further $950,000 in cash and $1.75m worth of its shares upon settlement.

Further payments to MEI include $1m in cash to be paid 18 months after settlement and $1.25m upon the production of 20,000oz of gold from Palm Springs.

NickelSearch (ASX:NIS) has revealed plans to acquire a 100% interest in the Mt Isa North Project, made up of a handful of highly prospective exploration permits covering 2,003km2 in the Mt Isa region.

The new site for NIckelSearch is just 10km along strike from Glencore’s Mt Isa Mining & Processing Complex, which boasts a pre-mining metal inventory of 255Mt @ 3.3% Cu.

Historical drilling dating back to the 1970s at Mt Isa North turned up some excellent prospects, such as 23.77m @ 4.67% Cu from 51m incl. 12.80m @ 7.77% Cu at Surprise Mine. Nearby, the Julius prospect returned undrilled high-grade Cu-Au structure with rock chips grading up to 39.5% Cu + 1.62g/t Au, and the Gunpowder Creek prospect contains undrilled high-grade Cu-Au structure with rock chips grading up to 7.32% Cu + 0.65g/t Au.

 

TRADING HALTS

Estrella Resources (ASX:ESR) –  pending an announcement regarding a capital raising.

EDU Holdings (ASX:EDU) –  pending an announcement by it in relation to the Government’s proposed imposition of caps on new international student commencements in EDU’s operating businesses.

Dubber Corp (ASX:DUB) – pending an announcement by the Company in relation to potential adjustments to its FY2023 financial statements and the prior year position.

Australian Oil Company (ASX:AOK) – pending an announcement to the market in relation to material asset divestment.

 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Anson Resources, Meteoric Resources, Alma Metals, Blue Star Helium, Corella Resources, EZZ Life Science Holdings, Far East Gold, Felix Gold, Greenvale Energy, Race Oncology, Sovereign Metals, Spartan Resources, Sun Silver, Torque Metals, Viridis Mining & Minerals and White Cliff Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

Read MoreMarkets

Featured Companies

You might be interested in