The ASX continued its steady rise up and out of last week today, ignoring a slight dip on the major US indices.

The Nasdaq seems determined to hit a record level in 2020 though – it’s once again nudging 11,899.34 points, about 157 points off its all-time closing high.

Back in the halcyon February pre-Covid days, it was hovering around 9700.

It’s a good time to be high up in US tech, and stealing all the market headlines on a daily basis. Just today, we saw:

  • Elon Musk gained another $US12 billion after Tesla scored an invite to the S&P 500. He’s now the third richest person in the world ($US114 billion) after passing Mark Zuckerberg.
  • Zuckerberg, meanwhile, faced the US Senate Judiciary Committee alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as the two were grilled about decisions the platforms made around the US presidential election.
  • Dorsey’s payments company Square blagged a clean $US34 million after Bitcoin surged past $US17,800. In October, Square bought 4709 BTC at an average price of $US10,618.
  • And Dolly Parton saved the world. Her quiet $US1 million donation to virus research at Vanderbilt University helped produce the Moderna vaccine.

It’s a nerdy, nerdy world out there.

Here’s what you might have missed at home.

Announcements

– The ASX accepted the word of Cassius Mining Limited (ASX:CMD) that it had no idea why its stock price jumped from a low of $0.012 to $0.044 today. It steadied around the 3c mark upon reinstatement. (It has been locked in a dispute with the Ghanian government over mining leases for a while, and recently threatened that government with a $US273 million claim.)

– Cynata Therapeutics (ASX:CYP) made the cover of Nature Medicine for the progress it has made on its proprietary Cymerus MSC technology. Look:

That’s an induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymoangioblast colony. Cynata’s Cymerus technology can be used to create 30 million doses of stem cells from a single donation of whole blood.

– Kazia Therapeutics (ASX:KZA) announced it had new data from a previous Phase II clinical trial that showed its drug paxalisib has promise for the treatement of glioblastoma. The new analysis confirmed safety and efficacy results from the Phase II trial which showed median progression-free survival (PFS) of patients treated with paxalisib was some 3.1 months longer than that of existing standard of care drug temozolomide. Median overall survival was 17.5 months reported versus 12.7 months for temozolomide. Presenting at the Society for Neuro-Oncology Annual Meeting, Kazia was also pleased to announce that in August, a patient had remained progression-free and on treatment for 27 months after being diagnosed with glioblastoma. Pretty impressive, and investors agreed, piling in to send KZA stocks up 32.8% to $1.58.

– Angel Seafood (ASX: AS1) announced the purchase of 6.25 hectares of “premium Eyre Peninsula water leases”, and has begun “new-age biodynamic flip-farming trials” to increase yields of it delicious Pacific oysters. It’s already topped production capacity of 10 million oysters a year but soon faces some upmarket listed competition with Sydney Rock Oyster producer and seller East 33 eyeing a December 3 listing.

Trading halts

Great Southern Mining (ASX:GSN) – capital raising
Dotz Nano (ASX:DTZ) – acquisition
Alicanto Minerals (ASX:AQI) – capital raising
Orthocell (ASX:OCC) – clinical trial results
Cromwell Property (ASX:CMW) – response to shareholders resolutions
Classic Minerals (ASX:CLZ) – capital raising
Coppermoly (ASX:COY) – price query response
Stone Resources (ASX:SHK) – recapitalisation update

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