Closing Bell: Tech stocks in demand ahead of Tesla results; Osteopore up 130pc on clinical trial news

The ASX extends its gains on Tuesday
Tech stocks rallied ahead of US megacap earnings, while goldies struggled
Tesla, along with Alphabet and Spotify, will release results tonight

The ASX200 lifted on Tuesday, up by +0.45% after tracking the dip buying rally on Wall Street.

The Industrials sectors trailed all other sectors, while traders swarmed on to tech stocks ahead of quarterly updates from the US tech megacaps this week.

The ‘Magnificent 7’s earnings will particularly be in focus amid the recent tech slump. Tesla is reporting its results today (US time).

“If big tech earnings and Friday’s inflation data disappoint, that could extend the duration and depth of this current stock market correction,” said Jeremy Straub at Coastal Wealth.

Bank stocks also rallied today while gold stocks struggled heavily, with the ASX All Ordinaries Gold (XGD) index tanking by -4% as the bullion price fell to below US$2,306/oz in Asian hours.

Bullion prices have been dropping in the last two days after tensions in the Middle East eased down a notch.

“I don’t think gold goes all the way back to US$2,000 or below, but we could see US$2,100 before the end of the (US) summer,” Chantell Schieven of Capitalight Research told Kitco News.

The Aussie dollar meanwhile has rebounded from its 5-month low of US63.6c last week to trade at US64.59c at this time of writing.

Elsewhere today…

Australian asset manager First Sentier Investors said it was shutting down four funds focusing on Australian fixed income, global credit, dividend stocks, and emerging stocks.

The funds, which are managed out of Sydney, account for about $14bn or 6% of Sentier’s overall funds under management.

Australian-based asset managers are in general facing a challenge as the country’s massive pension sector increasingly chooses to create their own in-house investment operations.

Meanwhile, stock markets in Asia mainly rose today as the focus turns to the US corporate earnings season.

This week is the busiest week in the US’ earnings season, as about 180 S&P 500 companies (or 40% of the index) will give their trading updates to the market.

Companies to report their earnings tonight include: Tesla, Alphabet, Spotify, General Motors, and McDonald’s.

ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Today’s best performing small cap stocks:

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
OSX	Osteopore Limited	0.380	130%	2,283,433	$1,704,234
AUG	Augustus Minerals	0.040	33%	6,849,513	$2,561,100
E33	East 33 Limited.	0.017	31%	1,480,796	$6,982,153
SRT	Strata Investment	0.180	29%	54,353	$23,719,301
RCR	Rincon	0.041	24%	16,106,663	$7,297,995
DMG	Dragon Mountain Gold	0.011	22%	26,326	$3,552,045
M4M	Macro Metals Limited	0.017	21%	20,944,475	$45,248,935
SUM	Summitminerals	0.120	21%	4,435,551	$4,718,056
ZNO	Zoono Group Ltd	0.060	18%	72,351	$10,899,927
LU7	Lithium Universe Ltd	0.027	17%	837,900	$9,469,029
JBY	James Bay Minerals	0.210	17%	73,059	$5,877,900
ORN	Orion Minerals Ltd	0.021	17%	9,895,032	$105,233,124
H2G	Greenhy2 Limited	0.007	17%	395,494	$2,512,535
TMK	TMK Energy Limited	0.004	17%	3,455,709	$20,267,144
TSI	Top Shelf	0.185	16%	23,531	$33,388,138
FFF	Forbidden Foods	0.015	15%	256,754	$2,953,905
MXO	Motio Ltd	0.023	15%	34,247	$5,363,967
AXN	Alliance Nickel Ltd	0.039	15%	241,866	$24,678,547
FHS	Freehill Mining Ltd.	0.008	14%	1,128,755	$20,970,911
GTI	Gratifii	0.008	14%	3,164,226	$11,284,315
PL3	Patagonia Lithium	0.120	14%	10,000	$5,158,493
APS	Allup Silica Ltd	0.048	14%	83,355	$1,616,038
L1M	Lightning Minerals	0.103	14%	827,842	$3,800,256
CY5	Cygnus Metals Ltd	0.083	14%	518,412	$21,283,817

Augustus Minerals (ASX:AUG) says it may have have its copper targets at Tiberius and Claudius after releasing its rock chip assays today. Assays include a ripping 17.8% copper and 282g/t silver at Tiberius, which is currently 3m wide and 200m along strike. At Claudius, 11km to the south, results have outlined a number of parallel zones over 100m by 300m at grades of up to 6.6% Cu and 86g/t Ag.

Rincon Resources (ASX:RCR) jumped after reporting news of a string of new gravity targets to prioritise for drilling around its West Arunta ground. Those four new prospects are called K1, K2, Sheoak and Avalon, with three existing targets in the Pokali iron-oxide copper-gold prospect at Arrow, Dune and Surprise also enhanced by the ground gravity surveys. A program of works application has been submitted with WA’s mines regulator to enable RC drilling at all targets.

James Bay Minerals (ASX:JBY) says a field program is expected to start in the next four weeks to follow up airborne surveys, data from neighbouring properties and desktop studies completed since last year’s listing. “Our focus now is on ensuring that we target low-hanging fruit across all areas of the La Grande Project. This will ensure that we deploy capital efficiently on well-established targets,” said JBY’s executive director, Andrew Dornan.

Investors are continuing to digest Orion’s (ASX:ORN) big copper discovery at Flat Mine East, part of the Okiep project. That drill hit, by the by, was 49m at 4.86% Cu, well into the 99th percentile when it comes to copper discovery holes. The dual Australian and Johannesburg listed explorer also holds the fully permitted Prieska copper and zinc project.

Osteopore (ASX:OSX) popped big on news of the start of first-in-human clinical trials for knee preservation in Singapore, where the medtech specialises in “3D-printed biomimetic and bioresorbable” implants. Its first patient was treated for knee preservation with Heparan Sulphate 3 (HS3) and aXOpore via a High Tibial Osteotomy (HTO) at the National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore.”

Battery Age Minerals (ASX:BM8) says exploration targeting has begun at its Bleiberg Zinc-Germanium Project in Austria. It announced “senior geologists” had returned from Austria, “where they successfully accessed, collated and digitised over 100 years of historic mining data from the Bleiberg Zinc-Lead-Germanium Mine”. At time of its closure, the Bleiberg mine was the sixth largest producer of germanium globally and one of the largest outside of China.

Cyclone Metals (ASX:CLE) returned to the bourse with results of Phase 1 of the pilot plant test work for its flagship magnetite Iron Bear project. And the bourse liked what it saw. It also popped a quick 50% with $50k shares trading hands early on excitable quotes from CEO Paul Berend such as this: “The first phase of the pilot test work confirms the exceptional metallurgical properties of the Iron Bear deposit. We were able to produce one of the highest quality magnetite concentrates in the world with very high yields in an industrial setting.”

ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Today’s best performing small cap stocks:

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Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
JAV	Javelin Minerals Ltd	0.001	-50%	1	$4,352,462
ERL	Empire Resources	0.002	-33%	5,000	$3,338,805
MHC	Manhattan Corp Ltd	0.002	-33%	6,000	$8,810,939
ATP	Atlas Pearls Ltd	0.115	-32%	7,918,912	$73,715,804
ME1	Melodiol Glb Health	0.004	-30%	86,985,178	$2,690,966
MRD	Mount Ridley Mines	0.002	-25%	5,359,482	$15,569,766
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.002	-25%	1,107,353	$12,394,892
HAL	Halo Technologies	0.090	-25%	294,573	$15,436,367
HTA	Hutchison	0.028	-22%	59,875	$488,610,309
BYE	Byron Energy Ltd	0.060	-22%	2,642,348	$83,066,482
VIT	Vitura Health Ltd	0.125	-22%	12,112,811	$92,139,806
GBZ	GBM Rsources Ltd	0.012	-20%	5,585,365	$17,350,333
EXL	Elixinol Wellness	0.004	-20%	17,564,470	$6,505,370
IS3	I Synergy Group Ltd	0.004	-20%	1,233,334	$1,520,402
MOM	Moab Minerals Ltd	0.004	-20%	1	$3,559,815
NRZ	Neurizer Ltd	0.004	-20%	8,734,375	$7,507,054
ODE	Odessa Minerals Ltd	0.004	-20%	501,348	$5,216,413
NMR	Native Mineral Res	0.023	-18%	225,145	$5,875,814
PAA	Pharmaust Limited	0.240	-17%	6,370,811	$114,553,964
AS1	Asara Resources Ltd	0.010	-17%	1,701,647	$10,586,104
AYT	Austin Metals Ltd	0.005	-17%	434,474	$7,711,148
MCT	Metalicity Limited	0.003	-17%	1,250,001	$13,455,161
NTM	Nt Minerals Limited	0.005	-17%	128,571	$5,159,417
OAU	Ora Gold Limited	0.005	-17%	2,000,000	$34,836,005
OSL	Oncosil Medical	0.005	-17%	11,980,500	$13,533,247

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO) has started diamond drilling at the Lana Corina prospect along Chile’s renowned coastal copper belt to extend broad zones of identified high-grade copper and molybdenum mineralisation.

European Lithium (ASX:EUR) has used its balance sheet and shares held in Critical Metals Corp (NASDAQ: CRML) to acquire the Leinster project in Ireland to advance the development of Europe’s critical minerals supply chain.

Future Battery Minerals’ (ASX:FBM) recent field mapping at the Miriam project in WA has identified 11 outcropping pegmatite units that require follow-up exploration.

Horseshoe Metals (ASX:HOR) is accelerating development of direct shipping ore operations at its Horseshoe Lights copper project to deliver early cash flow.

James Bay Minerals’ (ASX:JBY) desktop studies have identified 340 targets at its La Grande project in Quebec’s prolific James Bay region that warrant further investigation due to their potential link to pegmatite outcrops.

Leeuwin Metals (ASX:LM1) will launch a significant drill campaign to test multiple high-grade spodumene-bearing pegmatites at its Cross Lake lithium project in Manitoba province, Canada.

Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) has appointed graphite and battery anode specialist consultant Dr Surinder Ghag as its chief technology officer for graphite as it continues to progress development of its top tier Kasiya rutile and graphite deposit.

Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ) has started Phase 3 exploration at its Jequie REE and niobium project in Brazil’s well endowed Bahia state close to the 510Mt Rocha de Rocha REE project. The work consists of detailed geological mapping, rock chip sampling, stream sediment sampling and grid soil sampling to identify priority targets ahead of maiden drilling. Targets were prioritised based on enhanced measured outcrop radioactivity associated with favourable host rock lithologies that were also coincident with elevated airborne thorium anomalies.

Ora Banda Mining (ASX:OBM) has completed the farm-out of its non-gold mineral rights at its Davyhurst tenement package, 100km northwest of Kalgoorlie, to Wesfarmers (ASX:WES). The company will receive $4.29m on 30 April, at which point it has received the full $26 million cash consideration due under the transaction. It will also receive a 2% net smelter royalty for all other minerals. It will receive a further $4m from Hawkes Point for effectively on selling 1.5% of the 2% royalty.

TRADING HALTS

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At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Australian Mines, Ora Banda Mining, Culpeo Minerals, European Lithium, Future Battery Minerals, Horseshoe Metals, James Bay Minerals Leeuwin Metals and Sovereign Metals are Stockhead advertiser, they did not sponsor this article.