The ASX200 has taken a 0.5% hit on Wednesday, with the tech sector giving back all the previous session’s gains after Wall Street fell and the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite lost 2.3% overnight.

The overnight session was dominated by comments from the formerly dovish US Fed Governor Lael Brainard, says OANDA senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley.

“Brainard set the cat amongst the pigeons of the equity and bond markets with some very hawkish comments,” he says.

First she suggested a 0.50% hike was on the table as “strong action” was required to reign in inflation and then volunteered the idea that a sharp reduction of the Fed’s balance sheet – quantitative tightening – could be fast-tracked to begin as early as next month, at a faster pace than previous cycles.

“What makes the comments overnight so significant is that Ms Brainard is typically one of the most dovish of the FOMC members. If she has swung into the uber hawk camp, then markets need to take notice and that they did,” Halley said.

Also not helping was further EU and Western-led sanctions aimed at Russian exports. That helped put the boot into European markets and much of that mood flowed on through into the local region today.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index is down 1%, while the Hang Seng shed 1.3% in the first hour of business as Shanghai’s COVID-lockdown further undermines confidence in the Chinese economy.

The ASX Emerging Companies (XEC) index is getting pasted, down over 1.5% in the last hour of trade.

Iron ore futures continue to edge higher, moving past $US162, while oil stepped back and the Aussie dollar-buck has started eyeing 76 US cents.

 

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

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Code Description Price % Volume
EMP Emperor Energy Ltd 0.072 60.0% 56,984,193
BRX Belararoxlimited 1.11 56.3% 1,592,378
GGX Gas2Grid Limited 0.0035 40.0% 57,805,163
TMK TMK Energy Limited 0.018 38.5% 47,124,135
LRS Latin Resources Ltd 0.215 30.3% 83,026,090
AQD Ausquest Limited 0.029 26.1% 8,274,838
JXT Jaxstaltd 0.035 25.0% 10,524,591
AD1 AD1 Holdings Limited 0.02 25.0% 1,434,561
KEY KEY Petroleum 0.0025 0.0% 40,000
XTC Xantippe Res Ltd 0.016 23.1% 218,962,590
GGE Grand Gulf Energy 0.058 20.8% 44,856,103
BXN Bioxyne Ltd 0.018 20.0% 200,000
SFG Seafarms Group Ltd 0.018 20.0% 13,138,588
AFW Applyflow Limited 0.003 20.0% 666,666
TYX Tyranna Res Ltd 0.006 20.0% 4,554,914
TEM Tempest Minerals 0.125 19.0% 34,148,415
IGN Ignite Ltd 0.165 17.9% 62,721
CR1 Constellation Res 0.27 17.4% 39,931
BTC BTC Health Ltd 0.068 17.2% 666
BDG Black Dragon Gold 0.076 16.9% 706,324
ADD Adavale Resource Ltd 0.049 16.7% 4,257,802
LSR Lodestar Minerals 0.021 16.7% 54,263,823
IPT Impact Minerals 0.014 16.7% 18,795,021
MRZ Mont Royal Resources 0.39 16.4% 238,762
HOR Horseshoe Metals Ltd 0.043 16.2% 505,948
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A punchy new metals play like Belararox (ASX:BRX) doesn’t have to do too much fancy to catch the eye of twitchy investors at the moment. In this case nothing at all also works.

The explorer of zinc-copper ores is up 52% after 3pm in Sydney. As far as I can make out, after IPOing in January with $6m at $0.20, BRX’s share price has surged 443%, now trading at $1.12.

This makes it one of the best performing ASX IPOs for 2022 and really suggests that there’s something exciting in the ground at its historical Belara copper-zinc project in NSW. The boss puts BRX’s share price rise down to the soaring zinc price.

“Zinc is over $4,000 a tonne, I can’t remember ever seeing that,” BRX Chief technical consultant Greg Partington told Stockhead.

Pearl Gull Iron (ASX:PLG) has drilled into ‘thick, high-grade iron ore’ at the Cockatoo Island ‘Switch Pit’, including ~57m grading 68.9% fe from ~80m.

That’s lovely high ore. The benchmark grade often quoted is 62% fe – anything better can attract a substantial price premium from buyers and aside from the very rare exceptions like Mount Gibson Iron’s (ASX:MGX) absolutely fascinating Koolan Island, the mainland doesn’t have much high-grade hematite floating about like in Brazil or in Africa. PLG is up about 13%.

Thomson Resources (ASX:TMZ) has hit thin but shallow and super high-grade silver at the ‘Webbs’ project at the Lachlan Fold Belt in NSW, ahead of a mineral resource estimate pencilled in for the current quarter.

New results include 6.62m at 793g/t from 67m, and come as part of TMZ’s “Fold Belt Hub and Spoke Strategy” which involves building a +100Moz silver eq resource base across multiple deposits that could be processed at a central facility.

Earlier today, TMZ executive chairman David Williams said the Webbs deposit is the most complex of all TMZ’s deposits and needs a lot of love  to fully understand the high-grade silver and base metal deposit. 

“Having said that when the Webbs MRE is delivered, Thomson will have produced five new MREs under JORC 2012 in well under 12 months which is an outstanding outcome from the team,” he said… before adding:

“We have not just rubber stamped previous published resources, we have gone through from scratch, gone through all the available historic information, and added in new data and studies where there have been gaps.

“What we will end up with is an MRE that we will have a lot of confidence in – our better understanding of the geological setting again throws up clear target areas for exploration drilling to expand and extend the resource.” 

The share price is up 13.33% on Wednesday.

 

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow fell after making announcements during the trading day).

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Code Company Price % Volume
ADN Andromeda Metals Ltd 0.115 -34.3% 148,323,920
KFE Kogi Iron Ltd 0.006 -25.0% 13,015,845
NTL New Talisman Gold 0.0015 -25.0% 66,666
CXM Centrex Limited 0.165 -21.4% 10,437,600
AQS Aquis Ent Ltd 0.14 -20.0% 14,295
DXN DXN Limited 0.009 -18.2% 4,749,751
POW Protean Energy Ltd 0.009 -18.2% 12,770,564
RD1 Registry Direct 0.019 -17.4% 760,000
ODA Orcoda Limited 0.13 -16.1% 442,535
ATV Activeportgroupltd 0.11 -15.4% 270,540
BOA Boadicea Resources 0.2 -14.9% 494,726
FG1 Flynngold 0.175 -14.6% 667,605
AKM Aspire Mining Ltd 0.077 -14.4% 471,100
HCD Hydrocarbon Dynamic 0.012 -14.3% 287,660
SKY SKY Metals Ltd 0.095 -13.6% 136,640
MIO Macarthur Minerals 0.485 -13.4% 339,109
SFM Santa Fe Minerals 0.13 -13.3% 167,635
MLS Metals Australia 0.135 -12.9% 32,194,075
AQX Alice Queen Ltd 0.007 -12.5% 650,000
LCT Living Cell Tech. 0.007 -12.5% 179,090
BCT Bluechiip Limited 0.035 -12.5% 86,378
EUR European Lithium Ltd 0.14 -12.5% 20,184,720
ZBT Zebit Inc. 0.042 -12.5% 57,715
UUL Ultima Utd Ltd 0.18 -12.2% 19,370
CGB Cann Global Limited 0.036 -12.2% 1,935,603
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ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

Cancer fighting company Race Oncology (ASX:RAC) provided an update on the clinical trial process for its drug candidate Zantrene, for the treatment of patients with extra-medullary Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) or high-risk Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS).

RAC said it’s now received ethics approval for the Phase 1 trial, which will include a Phase 2 dose expansion phase and recruit up to 60 patients. The next step is Research Governance Office (RGO) (site budget and contracting) approval, where RAC said “all required documentation has now been submitted to enable this outcome”.

“Governance approval is typically received within 4 to 8 weeks from submission,” the company added.

Lodestar Minerals (ASX:LSR) says it has acquired a 100% interest in application E45/5735 located in the East Pilbara region of Western Australia and 8km north of the giant Telfer gold operations.

The company snapped up the tenement after an application for ground subject to compulsory relinquishment was awarded by ballot. Lodestar will acquire the interest in the tenement on a deferred basis, 12 months after grant.

The consideration for the asset was a hefty $2,144 being the sum of application and rent fees. The 1,000m tenement is located in the Paterson Orogen, host to

TRADING HALTS

TMK Energy Ltd (ASX:TMK) –  price query response

K2fly Limited (ASX:K2F) – strategic investment and capital raising pursuant to a placement

Miramar Resources Limited (ASX:M2R) – exploration results

Pathfinder Resources Limited (ASX:PF1) –  potential acquisition

BSA Ltd (ASX:BSA) – capital raising

Golden State Mining Limited (ASX:GSM) – capital raising

Metgasco Ltd (ASX:MEL) –  drilling results at its Cervantes-1 well