Pic: Rommel Gonzalez / EyeEm / EyeEm via Getty Images
Kick Back: The 10 biggest stories you might have missed on Stockhead this week
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This might seem like a scene out of a horror movie, but this is how children living in Siberia get their vitamin D.
Labelled a “make-believe summer”, kindergarten-aged children are exposed to ultraviolet light for a minute or two to get their required dose of vitamin D (aka the “sunshine vitamin”) during the sunless winter months in the Siberian town of Lovozero.
Children living in Siberia getting UV light exposure during the long dark winter months. from interestingasfuck
The image was originally published in National Geographic.
Now here’s what you might have missed on Stockhead this week, but everyone else didn’t, and liked the most.
1. COVID-19 has been a historic catalyst for online retail — now the race for market share is onTech
It took a worldwide pandemic to wake Australian consumers up to the benefits of online shopping. Guess we Aussies are just not as partial to an online bargain as those in the US or UK.
Or perhaps it’s because we prefer to leave our comfy couches and big screen TVs and go on a physical hunt for a bargain.
Whatever the case, COVID-19 has convinced Australians online shopping is the way to go.
Now that Australia has caught up, the race is on for online retailers vying for market share. Sam Jacobs has the details.
2. Guy on Rocks: WA gold juniors in the spotlight with new finds around old mines
Nothing like a new gold discovery around an old mine to get investors opening up their wallets.
Several juniors have been reporting success in this area recently and investors are sitting up and taking notice.
As he does every week, former geologist and experienced stockbroker Guy Le Page offered up his top stocks to watch. Find out who made the cut.
3. Barry FitzGerald: The gold, nickel juniors cashed up and worth watching
The resources guys are again drawing the investor cash.
With COVID-19 restrictions pretty much out of the way for the explorers, they have been keen to tap the flood of investor money to underpin their 2020 field seasons.
And investors are looking for the next De Grey (ASX:DEG), Chalice Gold Mines (ASX:CHN) or Stavely Minerals (ASX:SVY).
As Barry FitzGerald pointed out, Stockhead has indeed covered the Lachlan Fold Belt in depth, so the Garimpeiro columnist went off in search of some names worth watching in the WA/Victoria high-grade gold and WA sulphide nickel spaces.
4. Money Talks: The WA goldies with the keys to success
Stockhead readers just can’t get enough of gold at the moment – hardly surprising given the precious metal smashed through the $US1800/oz mark this week. That’s over $2600/oz in Aussie dollars!
In this week’s Money Talks, we hear from Roger Breuer, investment analyst at Arlington Group Asset Management.
He’s a “big believer that gold will stay higher for longer”. And just like Le Page, it’s the WA goldies that are on his radar.
Find out who the top picks are if you missed them previously.
5. Zero to Hero: The incredible discovery that shaped West Africa’s newest gold miner
From the many hundreds of listed small cap explorers, just a handful will become long-term success stories. But pick the right one as an investor and the gains can be enormous.
In the latest Zero to Hero feature, Reuben Adams runs us through the success of West African Resources (ASX:WAF).
In June 2010, 30-something geologist Richard Hyde and his young team listed greenfields explorer West African Resources, raising $6.5m in an IPO.
In 2020, this freshly minted +200,000oz per annum gold miner has a market cap of +$800m and growing.
Find out just how it got there.
6. Rock Yarns: An economic geologist’s insights on the booming North Pilbara Gold Belt
This week, Peter Strachan discusses the booming North Pilbara Gold Belt with economic geologist Nigel Maund.
Maund has over four decades of experience in the mining sector and boasts an impressive CV that covers a wide range of commodities and deposit types as well as several geographic and political regimes.
7. The retail small caps that weathered the COVID storm better than their peers
While retail spending figures slumped in April, some ASX small caps fared better than others because of their focus and location.
Overall the retail sector made a modest 3 per cent gain but there is a big divergence between the winners and the losers.
The winners are the ones that focus on high-demand markets that have not been decimated by COVID-19.
Nick Sundich runs through the retail small caps that came out of COVID-19 relatively unscathed.
8. Scopo’s health powerplays: Health goes up when markets go down
Investors appear to be rotating back into defensive healthcare stocks on rising fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections, and as everything else looks expensive.
The last time investors flew to health stocks, much of the rest of the market was in trouble and large numbers of life sciences companies were also looking shaky, such as any that relied on elective surgery or conducting blood tests, because patients were too scared to have their regular tests done.
But this time pathology stocks are looking much more positive.
9. Analysts reckon gold will punch through $US2000 by year-end
This week the gold price smashed through the $US1,800 barrier, its highest finish since 2011, thanks to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
So Bevis Yeo decided to do a quick poll of a bunch of analysts to see where they reckon gold can get to by the end of the year.
10. A dismal decade: We need more copper discoveries, right now
Of the 224 significant copper deposits discovered globally over the past 30 years, only 16 have been found in the past decade — and just one since 2015.
Those 16 deposits contain a paltry 8 per cent, or 81.3 million tonnes, of all copper contained in discoveries since 1990, according to S&P data.
S&P Global’s Kevin Murphy calls it “the worst decade for copper discoveries that we have recorded”.
Reuben Adams runs through the dire state of affairs.
Have a good weekend!
