KABOOM! That’s the sound the ASX made this morning as it broke the sound barrier the instant markets opened, firing an explosive +2.7% firework into the sky for one of the best Friday mornings in recent history.

We have to say thanks to Wall Street for that – which we will in a minute – but first, something’s happened that needs to be talked about.

We’ve all seen some epic PR goofs over the years… like the time Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen smashed a supposedly bullet-proof window on Tesla’s “99% Armour / 1% Design” CyberTruck, live on stage, with his boss standing right there, with the whole world watching.

Oh, how we laughed – but it was a monument-sized mountain of horror for Tesla… the only thing that could have made it worse was if Musk’s trousers magically disappeared, leaving his battery-powered bollocks swinging in the breeze for all to see.

But even that pales in comparison to a PR blunder so nightmarishly bad, at first glance it looked like it could only be satire … or someone wrote the company Twitter password on a whiteboard in the conference room before hosting a webinar on cybersecurity, and L337 H@XX0Rs took the company’s socials over to wreak havoc.

However, no. This is not a drill. Global fast food chain KFC – purveyors of artery-hardening Chicken™ and Chicken Accessories™ since 19-diggety-doo – has messed up, Big Time.

It’s so bad that when it was brought to my attention early this morning, I thought it was fake. But I checked the source, and the source’s source – and even then thought that there is no humanly possible way that such a massive brand could cluck things up that badly.

And yet, here we are, living at time when KFC Germany has had to issue a grovelling apology after it sent out the following (now deleted) Tweet:

 

ASx lunch wrap KFC
Pic via Twitter

 

For those of you playing at home that don’t speak German, it roughly says this:

  • Remember the Kristallnacht.
  • Treat yourself to a crispy chicken tender with cheese.
  • Now from KFCheese.

For those of you playing at home that never learned history, the Kristallnacht – “the night of broken glass” – took place between 9-10 November, when Nazi leaders riled up the population and spearheaded a series of violent attacks against Jewish people, their homes and businesses.

91 people died on a night that is widely considered to be the start of the Holocaust, which went on to claim more than 6 million lives.

So… you can probably spot the pickle that KFC Germany is in, because, as marketing ideas go, this one is the single worst one imaginable:

“Hey! Remember the night Nazis started murdering loads and loads of Jewish folk? You should celebrate that by buying our chicken!”

Obviously, KFC has since deleted the Tweet and blamed it on linking its social media account to an automated system that includes national memorial days, and was coded by the Ghost of Hitler.

It’s not the first PR disaster to be blamed on social media, and you can rest assured that it won’t be the last – but do you know what isn’t a PR disaster?

Most of what’s happened on the ASX this morning: let’s go take a look…

 

TO MARKETS

Aussie markets are having a proper belter this morning, launching with a 2.7% cartwheel out of the gates and holding steady around +2.6% as lunch time rapidly approaches.

Without a shadow of a doubt, we have an extraordinary session on Wall Street overnight to thank for it, after data showed that inflation in the US has started to slow – and we’ll dive into the specifics there shortly.

But for now, a look over the ASX market sectors and it is ALL green. Every single last monster-flippin’ bit of it.

Except Utilities, which is sitting in the corner like a horrible surly teenager at his Great Aunt Vivian’s 70th, when he could be at home playing Elden Ring, but noooo… he’s stuck here instead and the only other person his age is his cousin who he kissed one Christmas when they were like 12 years old and now she thinks he’s a gross little perv.

It’s down 0.6%. And I SAID I WAS SORRY KRISTEN.

Sheesh.

But the rest of the sectors are positively soaring, from Energy (+0.77%) at the bottom through to Real Estate (+4.47%) and InfoTech (5.10%) at the pointy end, the latter taking its cue no doubt from the US Nasdaq tech-heavy blah blah, which climbed an incredible 7.35% in one session last night.

In the Large Caps Private Members Club where the money fights use real, actual money, there are some thrillingly big gains.

Block Inc (ASX:SQ2) is up a walloping 12.6% so far today, on no immediate news, so it’s probably just the vibe of the thing. Likewise, Wisetech Global (ASX:WTC) is up 10.4%.

Meanwhile Whitehaven (ASX:WHC) seems to be paying the price for cutting FY23 production and upping cost guidance on Wednesday, dropping 4.98% this morning, and Stanmore (ASX:SMR) is also falling, possibly in sympathy but it’s hard to tell with all that coal dust on their faces.

Let’s take a look through the Arch Window, and see what story is on the books from overseas today.

 

NOT THE ASX

Overnight, Wall Street had a massive party. Everyone was there. You shoulda seen it. Profits everywhere, dancing on the tables – even Stuart from accounting took a break from embezzling fantastic sums of company money to have a drink with the guys from the loading dock.

It’s all because, as Early Eddy Sunarto reports, “US headline inflation for October came in at 7.7% YoY versus forecast of 8%. It was down from 8.2% in September and noticeably better than the peak reading in June of 9.1%.”

“Increase in prices has softened across the board, with cars, apparel, and even energy softening,” Eddy says.

And that meant investors let all their pent-up buy-buy-buy energy out with much gusto, leaving the market looking a lot like the end of No Nut November, instead of the middle of the month.

By the time the bell went, the S&P 500 had surged by 5.54%, the Dow Jones by 3.70%, and tech-heavy Nasdaq by a phenomenal 7.35%.

Asian markets got in on the action this morning as well, with Japan’s Nikkei adding a sumo-sized 3.18% rump to its total in early trade.

Hong Kong, however, has gone positively monkey-poo, smashing out a 6.5% jump right at the start of the day before easing slightly, and Shanghai’s looking good for a better than 1.0% rise in early trade as well.

The jump on Wall Street has goosed the Crypto market too, with the majors enjoying a bounce from the bottom as the FTX epic drama hangs around the market’s neck like the corpse of a pirate in a gibbet cage.

It would be easy to lose 5-6 hours wading through the fallout to try to figure out who’s to blame.

Luckily, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has done a chunk of the heavy lifting for us:

 


And Rob “The Bog Snorkler” Badman has done the rest, summing it up as only he could over in Mooners and Shakers. Go there and learn.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for November 2 [intraday]:

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

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap
WBE Whitebark Energy 0.0015 50% 2,000,000 $6,464,886
OD6 OD6 Metals 0.6 43% 13,866,154 $20,723,008
LNU Linius Tech Limited 0.004 33% 1,000,000 $7,234,599
VMS Venture Minerals 0.029 32% 22,183,147 $36,904,067
SHH Shree Minerals Ltd 0.009 29% 15,253,820 $8,669,408
GO2 Thego2People 0.014 27% 712,860 $4,473,021
INP Incentiapay Ltd 0.01 25% 343 $10,120,509
PCL Pancontinental Energy 0.005 25% 2,471,932 $30,216,891
HGO Hillgrove Res Ltd 0.042 24% 6,510,552 $39,925,828
RAG Ragnar Metals Ltd 0.0185 23% 699,923 $5,687,773
SES Secos Group Ltd 0.16 23% 1,191,446 $69,667,242
CLA Celsius Resource Ltd 0.011 22% 2,999,663 $13,525,461
MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.0055 22% 10,949,337 $27,654,490
ATV Active Port Group 0.11 21% 423,826 $14,235,073
CPT Cipherpoint Limited 0.006 20% 2,840,000 $4,145,816
ROG Red Sky Energy 0.006 20% 834,933 $26,511,136
AWV Anova Metals Ltd 0.019 19% 2,054,144 $25,569,507
GSM Golden State Mining 0.051 19% 775,514 $5,031,611
IRI Integrated Research 0.39 18% 283,604 $57,076,316
SRZ Stellar Resources 0.013 18% 575,000 $11,050,940
NYM Narryer Metals 0.135 17% 58,360 $3,506,063
KZR Kalamazoo Resources 0.24 17% 425,026 $30,507,972
ZIP ZIP Co Ltd.. 0.73 17% 14,080,901 $441,049,783
FAL Falcon Metals 0.245 17% 248,608 $37,170,000
DCX Discovex Res Ltd 0.0035 17% 637,500 $9,907,704
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The Winner from the Small Caps end of our market this morning is OD6 Metals (ASX:OD6). It went ballistic yesterday – as noted by Rear Admiral Reuben and his Amazing Exploding Mac – and investors appear extremely keen to be the ones that were in on the ground floor for what they reckon could be Australia’s next De Grey or Chalice.

So OD6 is still climbing, well past +50% again today, up 161.5% for the week, and +232.4% for the month.

Venture Minerals (ASX:VMS) is also on a banger today, up 31.8% so far on fresh news that it’s hit multiple surface samples with more than 1% total rare earth oxides (TREO) and topping up at 12.5% TREO with 5,460 parts per million (0.546%) and 14,575ppm (1.457%) of the valuable magnet REEs praseodymium oxide and neodymium oxide respectively.

The result “effectively doubles the company’s exposure to the rare earth space”, VMS managing director Andrew Radonjic said – and investors are loving every square inch of it, too.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for November 2 [intraday]:

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

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap
ARO Astro Resources NL 0.003 -25% 83,500 $19,573,068
CFO Cfoam Limited 0.003 -25% 968,072 $2,935,363
JRV Jervois Global Ltd 0.4075 -17% 14,471,258 $747,766,710
ARE Argonaut Resources 0.0025 -17% 9,508,503 $19,085,614
FHS Freehill Mining Ltd. 0.01 -17% 550,000 $22,027,787
S66 Star Combo 0.15 -14% 10,000 $23,639,522
SUV Suvo Strategic 0.043 -14% 453,864 $34,219,581
IMB Intelligent Monitor 0.13 -13% 500 $19,605,044
CAD Caeneus Minerals 0.0035 -13% 298,623 $21,382,420
ICN Icon Energy Limited 0.007 -13% 365,096 $6,144,109
NRX Noronex Limited 0.03 -12% 1,652,929 $5,795,633
FFF Forbidden Foods 0.055 -11% 220,157 $6,410,992
BVR Bellavistaresources 0.24 -11% 71,146 $9,854,328
AVE Avecho Biotech Ltd 0.008 -11% 918,245 $16,540,824
NGY Nuenergy Gas Ltd 0.016 -11% 17,563 $26,657,199
NAC Naos Ex-50 0.775 -11% 28,763 $39,060,234
ITM Itech Minerals Ltd 0.29 -11% 543,468 $29,520,834
MRI Myrewardsinternation 0.052 -10% 140,000 $10,160,165
EPX Ept Global Limited 0.036 -10% 471,884 $7,275,272
MOB Mobilicom Ltd 0.009 -10% 94,377 $13,312,797
MTH Mithril Resources 0.0045 -10% 970,750 $14,701,165
RSH Respiri Limited 0.038 -10% 386,809 $33,651,927
MAP Microba Life Sciences 0.19 -10% 73,042 $47,528,604
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