Good news for Aussie investors this morning, after the benchmark jumped from the gate to an early 0.2% gain. It got as high as 0.3% before settling back to hit lunchtime 20 points taller than it was when it woke up.

It’s largely been led by a surge in Materials, which has largely been led by soaring iron ore prices – which we probably have China to thank for…

But before we head there to see what’s going on, let’s take a quick detour to India, where social media has apparently ruined the joy of a trio of newlyweds, after video of a man marrying twin sisters has gone viral and led to the man’s arrest. #DoubleJeopardy #SoundsHot #ActuallyGross

Local reports say that identical twin sisters Pinky and Rinky (no, really… #FairDinky), who work as IT engineers in Mumbai, “couldn’t imagine parting ways after marriage”, and came up with the idea that they both wed the same man shortly after the death of their father.

The women’s family consented to the “strange demand” of the sisters and found a suitor who agreed to marry them both – identified as Atul Awtade, a man known to the sisters who by all accounts seems pretty bloody happy about the idea of marrying identical twins.

 

Weirdly, the wedding took place in India’s second-most populous state, so it’s not like Awtade wouldn’t have had a few other options, despite the region’s badly skewed Male to Female Population ratio.

That might be why the video went viral – with the region already facing a deficit of marriable women, one guy taking two ladies out of the pool at once is, at best, quite greedy… and at worst, not in any way legal.

The local wallopers have taken a pretty dim view of the whole thing, arresting and charging the young man in question after footage from the wedding in Malshiras Taluka went viral – because of course it did.

You don’t get to see footage of a dude marrying identical twins every day, so if the trio were trying to keep it all a bit low-key and fly under the radar, maybe posting about it on social media wasn’t the best idea in the world.

And that’s because the Indian legal code, Under Section 494, quite clearly states:

“Whoever, having a husband or wife living, marries in any case in which such marriage is void because of its taking place during the life of such husband or wife, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.”

It couldn’t be any clearer! But just in case you’re finding India’s version of impenetrable legalese a bit hard to follow, here’s a short version: You can’t get married if you’re already married, as polygamy is no bueno.

Awtade has been booked by local authorities for a “non-cognizable” offence which, if you’re a fan of American cop shows, basically means he’s been done on a misdemeanour, not a felony.

 

 

But still – he’s facing up to seven years in an Indian prison. Let’s just chalk this one up to yet another sorry tale of social media ruining lives, and let it serve as a reminder that if you’re going to break the law, maybe don’t post videos of yourself committing the crime on the internet.

And, speaking of posting things on the internet, here’s what’s been happening on the markets so far this morning.

 

TO MARKETS

Aussie markets have lurched back into positive territory this morning, no doubt feeling refreshed and recharged by a pleasant first weekend of summer.

And on this fine Monday morning, it’s Materials leading the charge, up 1.7% so far, with Real Estate doing its best to keep up on +0.86%.

However, the rest of the market is lagging, Health Care down 0.87%, and Utilities, Industrials, Energy, Staples and InfoTech all hovering around -0.5%. It’s a solid 50/50 as to whether the morning’s Materials surge will be enough to keep the whole ship afloat all day.

It basically hinges on how this next company fares as the day wears on, because while there’s only one Big Name in the Winners chart this morning, it’s a big Big One.

Fortescue (ASX:FMG) has climbed 5.13%, smashing through the $20 per share barrier and lifting its market cap up past $63 billion, after Singapore iron ore futures rose to US$101 per tonne.

FMG was already tracking higher this week since revealing Fiona Hick had jumped ship from Woodside to become FMG’s new CEO (and solid contender to take over “Iron Butterfly” as a nickname) in February 2023, but its ore prices that are helping drive things this morning.

Other big iron players BHP(ASX:BHP) and Champion Iron (ASX:CIA) have also lifted, up 2.5% and 2.9% respectively.

But all eyes this morning are the ongoing bidding war for Warrego (ASX:WGO), which has Gine Rinehart and Kerry Stokes’ Beach Energy (ASX:BPT) engaged in an all-out brawl for control of the Energy play.

At the time of writing, the Warrego board has assessed the Hancock takeover offer at $0.28 per share to be the superior proposal compared to Stokes’ Beach Energy offer of $0.25 – because the Warrego board can do basic maths.

But it’s quite obvious that the market is punting on Stokes trying to prove that his wallet is thicker than Rinehart’s hide, with Warrego trading 9.7% higher this morning at $0.31 per share – precisely where you’d expect Stokes’ next bid to land if he’s following the pattern of a $0.03 bump to the offer price.

Let’s peer over the fence and see how the neighbours are travelling this morning.

 

NOT THE ASX

In the United States, the spiritual home of gun crime and diabetes, Wall Street finished its week on Friday with more mixed results, after earlier recording its first back to back monthly gains in November since 2021.

The main issue facing the US economy, Early Risin’ Eddy Sunarto reports, is a touch of the old super-heating in US wages, where the gain was jaw-dropping as average hourly earnings rose twice as fast as forecast.

It’s almost as if employers took heed of the Brodignalian quantities of “I can’t afford to buy groceries” teeth-gnashing that has dominated the US for the past several months, and boosted pay-packets across the country.

That, and there were a bunch of US states that voted to increase minimum wages, of course… which helped, but didn’t really.

But still, the end result is that it’s likely to cause the Fed to tack on a few more basis points next time it meets to raise interest rates, which will put the squeeze on wage-earners again, which will mean they can’t afford groceries again, and then… you get the idea.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei is up a cautious 0.1% in early trade, as the nation reels from news that students are now allowed to talk with each other during lunch time, thanks to a new edict from the Japanese Ministry of Education and Idle Chit-Chat.

Topics allowed for discussion will include Pokemon, easy listening jazz, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and the inherent sadness of the human condition.

Meanwhile in China news, a report from The Townsville Bulletin says that two-thirds of Australia is now vulnerable to missile attacks from China, which now has the capacity to lay waste to the vast areas of essentially uninhabited bits of the country.

The news has sent shockwaves through Australia’s wildlife population, sparking fears of a National Wombat Day of Action later this month, which is expected to cause lengthy delays on all underground rail services, disruptions to below-ground mining operations and vast quantities of cube-shaped poo in the streets.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng is up 2.93% in very early trade, while Shanghai is up a far more sedate 0.83% this morning, with investors no doubt saving their money to buy into a GoFundMe to build a new island closer to Australia, so Chinese leaders can be sure to hit 100% of Australia with rockets.

And there won’t be any action from the Thailand Stock Exchange for the next couple of days, thanks to the two-day celebration of H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great’s Birthday, which is great.

In cryptoworld, a sudden swing in fortunes for the US Dollar has been spotted:

 

 

Sometimes this means BTC and ETH get a boost – but, let’s be real. It’s crypto, so who knows, really?

Also in the news in cryptoland is crypto broker Genesis and its parent company DCG, who owe users of the Winklevoss twins’ crypto exchange Gemini US$900 million.

Let’s hope for Gemini users’ sake it doesn’t end up in court, where the Winklevoss Twins quite famously don’t end up doing so well.

The pair (who couldn’t look more ‘Murica if they tried) famously extracted a “whopping” US$65 million settlement from Facebook in 2011 – when the company they claim they helped start was worth a scant US$60 billion or so.

On that kind of track record, that $900 million is starting to look like a $9 million payout. Top shelf investment, that.

There’s more to the story, of course – and Rob “There Can Be Only One” Badman has all the details over at Mooners & Shakers.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for December 5 [intraday]:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap
MEB Medibio Limited 0.2 100.00 1,000,000 $3,320,594
JPR Jupiter Energy 3.2 39.13 192,010 $3,527,687
PRM Prominence Energy 0.2 33.33 250,000 $3,636,913
SIO Simonds Grp Ltd 15 30.43 157,356 $16,931,941
BVR Bellavistaresources 35.5 26.79 498,402 $10,219,303
GLV Global Oil & Gas 0.25 25.00 1,421,287 $4,571,711
GMN Gold Mountain Ltd 1 25.00 8,303,156 $12,625,193
DW8DD DW8 Limited 3.1 24.00 235,095 $2,800,045
PCL Pancontinental Energ 0.8 23.08 58,947,650 $49,102,448
IRX Inhalerx Limited 6.6 22.22 25,000 $10,112,416
NRX Noronex Limited 3.5 20.69 2,552,506 $6,928,187
HIO Hawsons Iron Ltd 11 18.28 6,979,329 $68,917,924
CBR Carbon Revolution 16.5 17.86 4,700,145 $28,967,388
NES Nelson Resources. 0.7 16.67 2,987,000 $3,531,566
NZS New Zealand Coastal 0.35 16.67 304,833 $3,381,015
PEC Perpetual Res Ltd 2.8 16.67 80,000 $12,883,615
ECS ECS Botanics Holding 2.2 15.79 1,334,565 $21,027,883
NMR Native Mineral Res 15 15.38 18,250 $15,034,480
REM Remsensetechnologies 15 15.38 50,000 $4,740,004
AYT Austin Metals Ltd 0.8 14.29 449,117 $7,111,123
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In Small Caps News, Jupiter Energy (ASX:JPR) is roaring off towards its namesake this morning, climbing 39.1% this morning on news that Mercury in Sagittarius is all set to square off with expansive and risk-taking Jupiter tomorrow.

That’s before Venus in Sagittarius will get in on the action as well on December 9th, which means you can “expect an explosion of spontaneous excitement, especially if you’re willing to do something wild and uninhibited in order to get the good vibes going”.

Wait… that’s a horoscope – which is pretty much all we could find about Jupiter in the news today.

There’s no actual, readily identifiable reason for Jupiter Energy’s sudden lurch skywards this morning – so… the hot money’s on a speeding ticket from the ASX at some point today.

OreCorp (ASX:ORR) is another small capper on a charge with no visible basis this morning, up 30.9% despite no news from its Tanzanian gold operation since 23 November, when it revealed that it had secured $590 million worth of funding to keep digging from a range of well-placed lenders.

And homebuilder Simonds Group (ASX:SIO) has jumped 30.4% this morning, in the middle of a 13 for 9 renounceable entitlement offer, which has pegged a value of $0.12 per share. SIO is up to $0.15 so far this morning.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for December 5 [intraday]:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap
WBE Whitebark Energy 0.1 -33.33 954,922 $9,697,329
MBX Myfoodieboxlimited 5 -25.37 10,000 $2,244,500
CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.15 -25.00 34,032,691 $31,285,147
XST Xstate Resources 0.15 -25.00 2,471,826 $6,430,363
BDT Birddog 14.5 -21.62 46,316 $37,853,846
PR1 Pureresourceslimited 32.5 -20.73 812,537 $10,260,254
PYR Payright Limited 4 -20.00 167,775 $3,910,750
AMS Atomos 7.1 -19.32 3,869,178 $35,360,255
THR Thor Mining PLC 0.65 -18.75 7,792,597 $8,823,068
RAN Range International 0.5 -16.67 50,000 $5,635,742
TD1 Tali Digital Limited 0.25 -16.67 2,009,209 $4,252,575
PLG Pearlgullironlimited 2.6 -16.13 2,088,533 $1,701,972
IAM Income Asset 16 -15.79 90,000 $53,203,956
AHFDB Aust Dairy Limited 4.4 -15.38 410,705 $28,770,676
MCE Matrix C & E Ltd 20 -14.89 770,039 $34,326,786
ATU Atrum Coal Ltd 0.6 -14.29 92,834 $9,741,894
CTO Citigold Corp Ltd 0.6 -14.29 1,164,215 $19,835,614
DDT DataDot Technology 0.6 -14.29 854,113 $8,707,086
TCG Turaco Gold Limited 4.8 -14.29 331,154 $23,952,133
ADX ADX Energy Ltd 0.7 -12.50 1,027,234 $28,103,300
RR1 Reach Resources Ltd 0.35 -12.50 1,500,000 $7,640,203
TAS Tasman Resources Ltd 0.7 -12.50 61,096 $5,369,221
TTT Titomic Limited 17.5 -12.50 295,123 $41,119,522
AZY Antipa Minerals Ltd 2.1 -12.50 5,949,171 $86,232,981
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