Closing Bell: Iron ore slump drags down ASX; goldies under pressure on Fedspeak

ASX flat despite tech rally
Uranium miners gain further after Cameco suspends production
Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau set to resign amid mounting pressure

The ASX closed flattish on Monday despite a tech rally.

The tech sector rose following a bounce back on Wall Street after five days of losses, with Bitcoin also making a comeback, trading above $99,200 at the time of writing.

US investors were a little more buoyant after Mike Johnson, an ally of Donald Trump, held onto his role as Speaker of the House.

Johnson, who was elected Speaker of the House on Friday, managed to avoid the drawn-out, chaotic battle that his predecessor Kevin McCarthy faced to secure the role.

Back on the ASX, seven out of the 11 ASX sectors finished in the green.

Losses in the mining sector offset tech gains after iron ore futures slid by almost 3%, dragging down heavyweights like BHP (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO).

Making headlines today was superannuation giant, Insignia Financial (ASX:IFL), which surged 13% after announcing it had received a takeover bid of $4.30 per share from private equity firm CC Capital Partners.

Uranium miners had another good day, too. Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) and Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) both continued their Friday’s rally and enjoyed a further 5% hike each today.

This came after Canadian uranium giant Cameco suspended operations at its Inkai plant in Kazakhstan. The move sent shockwaves through the sector as the suspension could affect global uranium supply.

Over at Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL), however, things weren’t looking too rosy. The miner’s shares tumbled over 13% after it announced production had fallen short of expectations for the December quarter.

The broader gold sector faced pressure today as Federal Reserve officials signalled a more cautious stance on rate cuts this year.

And news just in, it looks like Canada’s PM, Justin Trudeau, is on his way out.

Word is, he’s planning to announce his resignation this week. Trudeau’s been under fire from within his own party, especially after a public fallout with his finance minister, Chrystia Freeland.

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Today’s best performing small cap stocks:

Security	Description	Last	%	Volume	MktCap
PKO	Peako Limited	0.003	50%	166,667	$2,190,283
SIS	Simble Solutions	0.006	50%	3,005,879	$3,345,321
GES	Genesis Resources	0.007	40%	360,000	$3,914,206
AAU	Antilles Gold Ltd	0.004	33%	4,547,481	$5,573,628
GMN	Gold Mountain Ltd	0.004	33%	109,815,880	$11,902,420
SUM	Summitminerals	0.200	33%	5,570,222	$12,949,198
CYC	Cyclopharm Limited	2.000	25%	311,578	$177,818,960
NTM	Nt Minerals Limited	0.005	25%	2,500,008	$4,843,612
TMK	TMK Energy Limited	0.003	25%	1,569,047	$18,651,130
FDR	Finder	0.039	22%	200,402	$9,097,226
MAG	Magmatic Resrce Ltd	0.040	21%	119,367	$13,762,674
1CG	One Click Group Ltd	0.012	20%	1,763,798	$11,778,799
ALR	Altairminerals	0.003	20%	184,356	$10,741,444
ICG	Inca Minerals Ltd	0.006	20%	555,583	$5,133,613
RMI	Resource Mining Corp	0.006	20%	177,521	$3,261,739
RNX	Renegade Exploration	0.006	20%	1,713,341	$6,420,017
TAS	Tasman Resources Ltd	0.006	20%	66,667	$4,026,248
VEN	Vintage Energy	0.006	20%	1,315,837	$8,347,656
GAL	Galileo Mining Ltd	0.160	19%	551,429	$26,679,365
MHC	Manhattan Corp Ltd	0.026	18%	301,731	$5,167,776
WC1	Westcobarmetals	0.020	18%	1,670,966	$2,990,511

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Summit Minerals (ASX:SUM) is set to acquire the Mundo Novo Niobium-REE-Phosphate Carbonatite project in Brazil. SUM said the site is rich in niobium, rare earth elements (REE), and phosphate, with promising mineralisation confirmed, though it remains underexplored. The project lies near Highway 156 – some 6km east of Mundo Novo, in Goiás State. The acquisition depends on Summit completing a satisfactory due diligence.

EBR Systems’ (ASX:EBR) stock jumped 40% last week and another 2% today, prompting a probe from the ASX. The company denied it knew anything about the big spike.

DroneShield (ASX:DRO), a drone-detection tech company, shot up 4% after it scored a $9.7 million order from a major Latin American military customer.

Metro Mining (ASX:MMI) has announced record shipments of 5.7 million WMT in 2024, a 24% increase on 2023, but the share price was flat today. December shipments hit a record 0.48 million WMT, up 53% on last year, despite challenging weather conditions.

Imugene’s (ASX:IMU) shares keep on surging after Friday’s announcement. The biotech company said it has dosed its first Australian patient in the phase 1b clinical trial of its allogeneic CAR T-cell therapy, azer-cel, at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. The trial targets relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), a tough form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Today’s worst performing small cap stocks:

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
IS3	I Synergy Group Ltd	0.003	-40%	105,000	$1,781,089
EEL	Enrg Elements Ltd	0.001	-33%	86,000	$4,880,668
ERA	Energy Resources	0.002	-33%	2,563,775	$1,216,188,722
D3E	D3 Energy Limited	0.056	-30%	12,007	$6,358,000
88E	88 Energy Ltd	0.002	-25%	3,804,923	$57,867,624
BYH	Bryah Resources Ltd	0.003	-25%	128,267	$2,013,147
NRZ	Neurizer Ltd	0.002	-25%	32,027,560	$5,929,721
OB1	Orbminco Limited	0.002	-25%	262,892	$4,333,180
RGL	Riversgold	0.003	-25%	1,045,911	$6,734,850
LYK	Lykosmetalslimited	0.010	-23%	271,199	$2,448,622
FGH	Foresta Group	0.007	-22%	3,391,208	$23,662,069
WNR	Wingara Ag Ltd	0.007	-22%	3,765	$1,579,883
CHM	Chimeric Therapeutic	0.006	-20%	982,806	$11,813,624
CDT	Castle Minerals	0.002	-20%	210,000	$4,742,035
CYQ	Cycliq Group Ltd	0.004	-20%	302,278	$2,302,583
ROG	Red Sky Energy.	0.008	-20%	59,106,653	$54,222,272
BP8	Bph Global Ltd	0.003	-17%	65	$1,419,924
ENV	Enova Mining Limited	0.005	-17%	100,000	$5,909,576
EVR	Ev Resources Ltd	0.003	-17%	100,558	$5,437,510
LNR	Lanthanein Resources	0.003	-17%	236,000	$7,330,908
AON	Apollo Minerals Ltd	0.012	-14%	1,036,037	$10,996,196
OSL	Oncosil Medical	0.006	-14%	26,922,205	$32,246,061

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

QEM’s (ASX:QEM) Julia Creek vanadium and energy project in Queensland has been declared a ‘controlled action’ by the Commonwealth government, streamlining its approval pathway. The decision follows the recent designation of Julia Creek by the Queensland government as a coordinated project, designated for projects of strategic significance to the locality, region, or state.

Summit Minerals (ASX:SUM) is set to acquire the advanced Mundo Novo project in central Brazil, with due diligence underway before finalising the acquisition. The project, with proven REE and niobium mineralisation, adds a drill-ready asset to the company’s portfolio.

Anson Resources (ASX:ASN) has secured approval to drill 24 exploration holes for ~1,000 metres at its Yellow Cat uranium and vanadium project in Utah, USA. Drilling will target extensions of mineralisation near the Windy Point and Mineral Treasure mines, where previous sampling returned grades of up to 10.33% U3O8 and 25.6% V2O5.

Firetail Resources (ASX:FTL) has been selected as one of eight early-stage exploration companies to participate in the 2025 BHP Xplor program. BHP will provide US$500,000 in non-dilutive funding to support and drive Firetail’s exploration plans for its Picha copper-silver project in Peru during the six-month program.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While QEM, Summit Minerals, Anson Resources and Firetail Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.