• Benchmark set to end the day down 1.5%
  • Small caps smashed down 4.2%
  • Greenwing up 70% on Chinese investment

 

Look. No-one likes Monday’s except possibly the last four or five Prime Ministers. I definitely sense S Morrison and K Rudd and certainly T Abbott were all about the Monday.

For us and the S&P/ASX 200 index, we’ll keep this brief.

Small caps: down 4.2%.

Benchmark: down 1.5% – actually a decent improvement on the 2.3% losses this morning which had the Stockhead geeks (dear god, there’s so many here) dusting off the calculators for the nearest 52-week low.

We’re not alone. There’s a bit of a regional hissy fit in progress. Markets around the Asia-Pacific have spat dummies, sushi, beer and … k-pop? all down as the Friday mood on Wall Street infected traders from Seoul to Sydney.

The Nikkei is down 2.5%, South Korea’s Kosdaq -5%.

It’s not outright calamity. Energy stocks have been pummelled, but have you even seen energy stocks lately? They’re doing pretty well.

Having said that, oil prices took a few steps back as the consequences of raising rates began to gel with investors thinking about what a global slowdown might do for fans of crude. Brent fell 5% and was loitering without intent under $US86 a barrel, while US Nymex fell as much as 5.5% to around $US77 a barrel.

I’ve written a holy handful about the adventures on Wall Street (both past and present), so let’s skip their awful, awful Friday leads and instead admire the unholy way US Treasuries are moving this month. The closest visualisation I can come up with is this:

US 10-year yields ran down the stairs backwards by about 3.8%, while, disobeying the laws of  money American 2-year yields rose to 4.2%.

Base metal prices slumped on Friday amid mounting concerns about demand, especially in crisis-hit Europe.

Tin dropped 6.7% with aluminium giving away 5.3% – and that ladies and gents is a fourth straight weekly decline for the shiny baby born of bauxite.

Gold futures gave up $US25.50 an ounce or 1.5% to a 2and a half year low.

And for the love of ever going on holiday again, the Aussie dollar,  at US65.25c around lunchtime is (like all other currencies not American) – on its way to a house made for a dog.

CBA’s Joseph Capurso says there’s real pain n the USD gain and it appears at least Firefinch (ASX:FFX) was listening. The digger killed a planned placement Monday, citing a rising USD and falling gold prices.

The company on September 21 announced a two-tranche recapitalisation placement it hoped would raise $90m.

Firefinch on Monday said it was no longer “appropriate to complete the placement.” So it’s goodbye 2-tranche recap placement worth circa $90m and medium-term production strategy and hello sitting in the corner with a silly look on our face.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

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Big gains at least for Greenwing Resources (ASX:GW1) on Monday. The word is NYSE listed Chinese EV maker Nio is subscribing for $12m worth of shares in the lithium minnow ahead of a potential JV and offtake deal.

Emma says Nio will hold about 12.16% of GW1 at completion of the placement, done at 55c per share – a big premium to the last closing price.

Word that Dundas Minerals (ASX:DUN) has hit shallow massive sulphides and ultramafic rocks in water drilling at the Central Target, in southern WA.

Might not sound as sexy as its share price, but the nickel, copper, cobalt, and gold explorer did put two words together in its Monday release that got traders blood up:

“Unexpectedly, massive sulphides were intersected in hole 22CEWB003 (from 17m) and pyrite rich altered stockwork veins, also from 17m, in hole 22CEWB001,” the company revealed.

Biotechnology firm Arovella (ASX:ALA) says its its invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cell platform for cancer treatment (CAR19-iNKT cell therapy) will be combined with Imugene’s (ASX:IMU) onCARlytics (CF33- CD19) platform to target solid cancers in a pre-clinical trial.

Needless to say there’s a market for that.

ALA says the trial will explore the potential of expanding the use of ALA-101 in solid tumours, which pose significant unmet need and account for more than 90% of all diagnosed cancers.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

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THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED ON MONDAY

Prop-tech firm Openn Negotiation (ASX: OPN) says it has secured a key partnership agreement with one of the world’s best-known real estate names – Century 21.

Century 21 is one of the largest real estate brands in the world and in an endorsement of OPN’s home-grown proprietary tech, the partnership combines one of the region’s most established property businesses – complete with global networks and forward-thinking e-sales processes – with OPN’s cutting-edge range of prop-tech solutions.

According to Sean Adomeit, Openn’s CEO of Australia & New Zealand, the deal is designed to place Openn’s products and services into the daily real estate processes of both vendors and sales agents right across the Century 21 Network.

Nutritional Growth Solutions (ASX:NGS) has entered a potentially US$20 billion market after announcing its Healthy Heights KidzProtein range is now on the shelves of 403 Walmart stores across the US.

Walmart will shelf two SKUs from NSG’s Healthy Heights portfolio – the KidzProtein canisters in chocolate and vanilla – following purchase orders from the giant retailer’s regional distribution centres.

The retailer has initially rolled the products out into 403 stores and expects to continue the rollout into more of its brick-and-mortar retail store network.

The deal with Walmart has further expanded Nutritional Growth Solutions’ retail footprints across the US, after recently announcing a distribution deal with The Healthy Edge Group.

And it looks like round one to the Greenland Government.

Lithium, uranium and rare earths explorer Greenland Minerals (ASX:GGG) has advised the Arbitration Tribunal has declined to grant the interim orders it requested against the Greenland Government. 

GGG submitted the application in June after receiving notification from the Greenland Government that it would proceed to decide the company’s longstanding application for an exploitation licence in respect of the Kvanefjeld Project. 

Now some good news if you’ve ever tried to get your kid to undertake a covid-19 nasal swab and heard them complain, cry or downright refuse. 

A new study by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the Royal Childrens Hospital in Melbourne has confirmed that the Rhinoswab (ASX:RNO) Junior nasal swab can: 

  • Be readily used by children to self-collect
  • Is more comfortable and preferred to the standard combined nose and throat swabs
  • Is highly sensitive and accurate for SARs-CoV-2 detection
  • Is more than sensitive and has better covid-19 case detection than saliva sampling. 

The 19th Royal Children’s Hospital National Child Health Poll found that 74% of parents were reluctant to bring their children in for covid-19 testing because of potential trauma and pain, with up to 30% unlikely to test their children due to current methods. 

It’s an end of an era for mydeal.com.au (ASX:MYD) today with the online retailer being removed from the ASX official list at the close of trading today following its $218 merger with Woolworths (ASX:WOW). 

WOW acquired 80% in the online retailer after getting the all clear from competition watchdog the ACCC and shareholders voted in favour of a scheme arrangement. 

Trading in MyDeal shares on the ASX was suspended at the close of trading on September 14. 

 

TRADING HALTS

Australian Pacific Coal (ASX: AQC) –  trading halt, pending a release in relation to a potential change to the structure of the transactions currently contemplated by the Company.

Bluestar Helium (ASX:BLU) – trading halt, pending the release of an announcement regarding contingent resources.

Metal Hawk (ASX:MHK)  – trading halt, pending an announcement regarding  a proposed capital raising.

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