Lunchtime ASX small cap wrap: Who's prepping for the endgame?

It was ‘markets on steroids’ as the Nasdaq and S&P 500 hit new closing highs on Tuesday, fuelled by better-than-expected corporate earnings.

Of the 104 companies in the S&P 500 that reported quarterly earnings to April 18, 77.9% reported above analyst expectations, according to Refinitiv.

(Although this might just highlight just how bad analysts are at predicting the future.)

On Tuesday, global oil prices rose to six-month highs, iron ore was up again to US$94.20 a tonne, while base metals and gold prices fell.

In local news, the Federal Budget is in surplus for the first time in a decade – “nothing short of remarkable,” says Commsec chief economist Craig James.

But inflation came in this morning with a bad miss. The weakest quarterly increase on record has put the chance of a rate cut in May squarely on the table, and the Aussie dollar is getting hammered.

Unsurprisingly, it’s been a strong session for local small caps in morning trade.

The Small Ords tracked broader markets higher to rise by 26.3 points at 12pm AEST — a gain of 0.93 per cent. At 2,856, it’s marching steadily towards that 12-month high of 2,914 reached in August last year.

Check this out:

GOING UP

Small cap explorers led the charge, with Caeneus Minerals (ASX:CAD), Gladiator Resources (ASX:GLA), and VDM Group (ASX:VMG) all up 100 per cent in morning trade on no news.

And the ASX forced Consolidated Zinc (ASX:CZL) to retract a maiden ore reserve statement but it was too late – the stock surged 70 per cent in morning trade.

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm on Wednesday, April 24:

Ticker	Name	Price	% Chg	Market Cap	Volume
CAD	Caeneus Minerals	0.002	100%	$3,700,000	1.4M
GLA	Gladiator Resources	0.002	100%	$1,500,000	1.3M
VMG	VDM Group	0.002	100%	$12,600,000	1.1M
CZL	Consolidated Zinc	0.02	70%	$20,000,000	2.2M
CLZ	Classic Minerals	0.002	50%	$4,500,000	14.6M
KLH	Kalia	0.003	50%	$7,500,000	210.0k
SKN	Skin Elements	0.05	25%	$6,800,000	984.7k
EPM	Eclipse Uranium	0.003	25%	$2,900,000	27.8k
NMS	Neptune Marine Services	0.23	21%	$14,100,000	974
JXT	Jaxsta	0.3	20%	$72,000,000	116.1k
DHR	Dark Horse Resources	0.006	20%	$11,900,000	1.0M
PVD	Pura Vida Energy	0.02	20%	$4,600,000	2.2M
OCC	Orthocell	0.13	18%	$15,700,000	5.0k
TNY	Tinybeans Group	0.8	17%	$27,300,000	99.3k
AR9	Archtis	0.14	17%	$17,200,000	93.1k
AMD	Arrow Minerals	0.014	17%	$4,400,000	718.4k
RFN	Reffind	0.007	17%	$3,100,000	1.3M
NET	NetLinkz	0.14	17%	$187,900,000	10.1M
N27	Northern Cobalt	0.06	16%	$3,500,000	50.0k
PDN	Paladin Energy	0.14	16%	$245,300,000	7.2M

GOING DOWN

P2P Transport (ASX:P2P) is in strife. Yesterday, the company announced, amongst other things, that both its chairman and CEO, Matthew Reynolds and Tom Varga, have resigned effective immediately.

P2P banked $16.1 million in revenue for the March quarter, down from $20.1 million in the previous quarter.

Investors punished the company in morning trade, sending the stock down 25 per cent to 22c a share.

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks at 12pm on Wednesday, April 24:

Ticker	Name	Price	% Chg	Market Cap	Volume
LRS	Latin Resources	0.001	-33%	$3,400,000	500.0k
AYR	Alloy Resources	0.002	-33%	$3,200,000	2.1M
MLM	Metallica Minerals	0.02	-26%	$5,500,000	530.2k
P2P	P2P Transport	0.22	-25%	$18,800,000	96.9k
PNN	PepinNini Lithium	0.003	-25%	$2,900,000	83.5k
AVW	Avira Resources	0.003	-25%	$3,000,000	10.7M
MXR	Maximus Resources	0.06	-22%	$1,800,000	162.4k
SGO	Stream Group	0.01	-20%	$1,800,000	22
MHC	Manhattan Corp	0.004	-20%	$3,000,000	1.2M
IVO	Invigor Group	0.004	-20%	$10,600,000	5.9M
ALT	Analytica	0.004	-20%	$13,300,000	140.3k
VIC	Victory Mines	0.004	-17%	$3,100,000	150.0k
E2E	Eon NRG	0.005	-17%	$3,800,000	408.3k
MDI	Middle Island Resources	0.006	-14%	$6,300,000	887.0k
FGO	Flamingo AI	0.006	-14%	$6,700,000	296.8k
ADR	Adherium	0.03	-14%	$5,600,000	150.0k
PIL	Peppermint Innovation	0.013	-13%	$13,800,000	468.9k