Lunch Wrap: ASX slips as goldies shine; Beach Energy doles out juicy dividends

• Gold rallies as soft US jobs lift rate-cut hopes
• Oil slides, but Beach bucks the trend with big dividend
• Endeavour shakes up leadership, Santos eyes long-haul gas deal

The ASX slipped 0.2% by Monday lunchtime in the eastern states.

A soggy US jobs report, oil prices heading south, and a few boardroom bombshells back home had local traders heading for the exit doors.

With all the nervous energy floating around, the usual safe havens took centre stage.

Consumer staples – your Woolies and Coles – held firm, and gold stocks lit up the scoreboard.

Bullion prices came bounding back after the US reported just 73,000 new jobs for July, well below the 100,000 forecast.

Suddenly, all the chat turned back to the Fed Reserve, and the growing odds of a rate cut in September. That’s all gold needed to burst through the US$3,300 level.

Meanwhile, energy stocks slid this morning as oil prices dipped.

Brent fell below US$70 a barrel, with fresh fears that global demand could weaken.

Woodside Energy Group (ASX:WDS) shed nearly 1.5%, and most of the sector wore the red.

But one name in the energy patch bucked the trend this morning, Beach Energy (ASX:BPT).

Despite booking a $43.8 million full-year net loss, the stock jumped 3% after the company promised shareholders a bumper final dividend, tripling it to 6 cents per share.

In other large cap news, Endeavour Group (ASX:EDV) jumped 3.5% despite chairman Ari Mervis quitting after an apparent board clash.

Duncan Makeig takes over as interim chair, and CFO Kate Beattie steps in as acting CEO until Jayne Hrdlicka starts in January.

Elsewhere, Santos (ASX:STO) has inked a non-binding deal with Engie to pump up to 20 petajoules a year from its Narrabri Gas Project into the Aussie east coast market.

The two are also eyeing carbon capture tie-ups through Moomba phase 2. It’s all still conditional, but if green-lit, it’s a long-haul play: 10 years of gas, with a dash of decarbonisation on the side.

Santos’ shares were down 0.1%.

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for August 4 [intraday]:

Tambourah Metals (ASX:TMB) has struck shallow, high-grade gold at its Beatty Park South project, with standout hits including 6m at 25.8g/t from 30m, and a 1m interval grading 126g/t. The aircore campaign tested a historic gold-in-soil anomaly north of Meekatharra, confirming strong mineralisation over a 120m strike and ending in mineralised ultramafic rock.

Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY) has submitted an expanded drilling plan to the US authorities for its Desert Antimony Prospect in California, lifting total planned drilling to around 2,180 metres.

Backed by over $6.5 million in fresh capital, it’s now targeting three stibnite-rich quartz-carbonate vein trends and a new east-west structure identified through recent mapping and 3D modelling.

The aim is to define a JORC Exploration Target, with approvals expected in September, and drilling set to kick off shortly after.

The project sits just 1.4 km from MP Materials’ Mountain Pass Mine, placing Locksley squarely in the US critical minerals corridor.

Waratah Minerals (ASX:WTM) has hit more high-grade gold at its Spur project, with drillhole SPRCD062 returning 208.7m at 1.17g/t gold, including a juicy 38m at 3.61g/t. That hole has now extended the Spur Gold Corridor by 500m, taking the known strike to over 1.5km. Waratah is ramping up drilling to map out the full scale of the system. Screen fire assays are still pending, but the early signs are promising.

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for August 4 [intraday]:

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

ADX Energy (ASX:ADX) has increased oil and gas output in the June 2025 quarter as it lays groundwork for key shallow gas drilling in Upper Austria.

Javelin Minerals’ (ASX:JAV) revised mining plan features a 15% increase in recoverable gold ounces to 39,000oz thanks to higher grades.

Final assays from diamond drilling at Koonenberry Gold’s (ASX:KNB) Enmore project in New South Wales highlight the Sunnyside prospect as an emerging bulk tonnage play with high-grade potential.

Imagion Biosystems (ASX:IBX) has raised $3.5 million through a heavily oversubscribed two-tranche placement as it prepares to launch a phase II trial of its MagSense imaging tech for HER2+ breast cancer.

Initial drilling at Power Minerals’ (ASX:PNN) Santa Anna project in Brazil has intersected extensive niobium and rare earth mineralisation across 29 holes.

Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY) is expanding an antimony drilling program to four targets at the Mojave project, California.

LAST ORDERS

Sipa Resources (ASX:SRI) is gearing up for a heritage survey at the Crown gold project in WA later this month, ahead of a maiden air core drilling program due to begin in September.

The drilling program will test several geological targets and follow up historical rotary air blast drilling and soil sampling.

Verity Resources (ASX:VRL) has fired up the drill bit at the Monument gold project, chasing a resource upgrade for the 154koz mineral resource estimate.

The mineralised target remains open for further exploration in all directions and at depth, offering plenty of potential for new resource ounces to be found in drilling programs.

Norwest Minerals (ASX:NWM) has polished off a phase 1 reverse circulation drilling program at the Bulgera gold project, ahead of schedule and under budget.

The 11-hole, 2624-metre program hit multiple zones of prospective rock hosting trace sulphides and quartz veining, consistent with gold mineralisation found elsewhere on the tenure. NWM expects results within 4-6 weeks.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Sipa Resources, Verity Resources and Norwest Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article. 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.