Australian markets have dipped early today, following a severely underwhelming performance on Wall Street overnight where recession fears have investors feeling wary.

The ASX 200 fell at the open and slowly sank further on the way to lunch, tracking around 0.6% lower, with the post-lunch session still to come.

But first, there’s been a change of heart by authorities in San Francisco, which has led to the city’s announcement that it no longer has plans to roll out a stable of Killer Robots to assist with police work.

The San Francisco Police Department had recently informed its citizenry of a program that would have allowed police to turn up at the scene of a crime in progress, and send deadly robots in place of human police officers to sort things out.

In its defence, the City of San Francisco had moved quickly to dispel rumours that it had managed to bring a RoboCop-like sentient cyborg to life, armed it with a brutal array of weaponry and a “You have 9 seconds to comply” ultimatum before the shooting starts.

Instead, the SFPD tried to ease fears of citizens by explicitly stating they had “no plans to arm the robots with guns”, because their actual plan was even more ludicrous, a lot more boring but probably just as deadly.

The SFPD had been exploring the option of turning the city’s cadre of bomb disposal robots into the precise opposite of their original purpose, so that they could be rolled into an active crime scene (once perfunctory negotiations had proven fruitless, of course) and detonated next to whatever baddies needed to be taken down.

But… they were only going to be used in “extreme circumstances”, which the SFPD didn’t elaborate on, leaving us to assume that meant that they would only be rolled out if a crime was taking place in a skate park, or if it could be proven that the perpetrators had consumed four or more Monster Energy drinks. #ToTheMax

Predictably enough, anti-violence wowsers have ruined what might have been another notch on American law enforcement’s bedpost of terrible failures – and the city has backed down entirely on its plans to send remote controlled bombs into tense situations. For now.

So if you were waiting for an iron-clad sign the The Terminator was about to become a horrifying reality, we’re afraid you’re going to have to wait a little while longer.

 

TO MARKETS

Aussie markets are sagging this morning, after the bottom fell out of the Energy sector and Wall Street’s nerves of a looming US recession got the better of everyone.

The benchmark was doing its best not to fall past -0.6% this morning, but with Energy dropping 2.5% in just a few hours, that’s not looking likely – especially considering that it’s clearly intent on taking everyone with it on the way out.

Industrials and Telcos are both down more than 1.0%, Materials isn’t far behind them on -0.7% – and the tiny ray of sunshine being emitted by Utilities (+0.9%) this morning is producing just enough light for everything else to find the exit.

There are some trend-busters living large at the top end of town, though – Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) has jumped 11.3% on news that it’s hit promising new sulphide mineralisation at the Hooley Prospect.

Chalice hit mineralisation in all five reconnaissance holes from three drill sites along 1.8km of strike, with the best of the results looking like this:

  • 69m @ 0.9g/t 3E2, 0.1% Ni, 0.1% Cu, 0.01% Co (0.6% NiEq) from 312m (HD050), incl:
    • 3.4m @ 11.5g/t 3E, 0.1% Ni, 0.2% Cu, 0.01% Co (4.0% NiEq) from 370.6m; and
    • 4.4m @ 0.5g/t 3E, 0.3% Ni, 0.2% Cu, 0.03% Co (0.7% NiEq) from 317m.
  • 40m @ 1.6g/t 3E, 0.2% Ni, 0.2% Cu, 0.02% Co (0.9% NiEq) from 142m (HD055), incl:
    • 28m @ 2.1g/t 3E, 0.2% Ni, 0.3% Cu, 0.02% Co (1.1% NiEq) from 151m.
  • 14m @ 1.2g/t 3E, 0.1% Ni, 0.1% Cu, 0.01% Co (0.6% NiEq) from 224m (HD055), incl:
    • 5.3m @ 1.9g/t 3E, 0.2% Ni, 0.2% Cu, 0.02% Co (1.0% NiEq) from 225m.

And Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) is up a whisker over 7.0% this morning, clawing back some of the downturn it took yesterday. Not for any particular reason, though. Just because.

Buuuuut… the big news in the large caps sector this morning is Downer EDI (ASX:DOW), which has been hit by an “accounting irregularities” drama that has sent its trading price plummeting more than 21.5% this morning.

Downer says the irregularities “are estimated to result in a historical overstatement of pre-tax earnings in the order of $30 million – $40 million at the end of November 2022 accumulated across financial years 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023”.

The Downer board is investigating, and no doubt there will be more news to come, but it’s pretty clear from the massive sell-down that investors are none-too-pleased.

T’is a massive downer, indeed – but we’d like you to note that we resisted the temptation to run with the headline “DOW slumps 21.5%”. Nobody’s Covid-weakened hearts need that this close to Christmas.

 

NOT THE ASX

Things in the US were limp overnight, as ongoing recession fears keep US investors feeling a little nervous in the run up to Christmas. The Nasdaq was down 0.5%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes were flattish.

Earlybird Eddy Sunarto reports that recession fears are biting hard into some of the big names of Big Business in the US – including Morgan Stanley, which has blamed those fears for its decision to radically extend the Christmas holiday period for 1,600 of its global workforce, by laying them off. #SilentNight #TooHungryToTalk

Citigroup CEO, Jane Fraser, said countries around the world will dip into a recession, with the US to follow in the second half of 2023.

“Obviously, things are softening. But still, when you go to the States, compared to elsewhere in the world, it is good to be American,” Fraser said – unless, of course, you work for Morgan Stanley.

In Asia, the Nikkei has edged lower after a new fast food fad sent shockwaves through the markets, and bathrooms, in Japan.

It’s been nearly a week since Mos Burger suggested that, in order to truly appreciate the crispy, golden goodness of its fried chicken, diners should forego the traditional dipping sauces in favour of just dunking it in a thickshake instead.

 

 

It’s unclear just how many people have died of dysentery as a result – but honestly, we’d be surprised if the death toll hasn’t cleared at least 100,000 by now.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng is up at the first tinkling of the morning’s alarms, while in Shanghai they’re still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes today, so no news from there at the time of writing.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for December 8 [intraday]:

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

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap
ANL Amani Gold Ltd 0.0015 50% 2,513,865 $23,693,441
CYQ Cycliq Group Ltd 0.01 43% 736,030 $2,432,617
MTB Mount Burgess Mining 0.004 33% 945,000 $2,577,513
NTL New Talisman Gold 0.002 33% 5,010,472 $4,690,838
HLX Helix Resources 0.009 29% 27,041,236 $16,262,021
ROG Red Sky Energy. 0.005 25% 10,567,894 $21,208,909
SGA Sarytogan 0.48 23% 2,940,003 $24,065,786
CLZ Classic Min Ltd 0.011 22% 3,778,592 $6,627,450
OXX Octanex Ltd 0.006 20% 298,251 $1,294,888
CZN Corazon Ltd 0.025 19% 17,859,988 $12,816,942
PUR Pursuit Minerals 0.013 18% 961,684 $10,979,971
CUF Cufe Ltd 0.0165 18% 120,438 $13,525,573
REZ Resourc & En Grp Ltd 0.02 18% 147,833 $8,496,698
AFL Af Legal Group Ltd 0.175 17% 35,140 $11,480,463
CPT Cipherpoint Limited 0.007 17% 79,304 $5,631,083
RB6 Rubixresources 0.18 16% 3,000 $4,192,750
CXU Cauldron Energy Ltd 0.009 16% 579,054 $4,708,712
EIQ Echoiq Ltd 0.22 16% 1,301,946 $86,410,456
ESR Estrella Res Ltd 0.015 15% 4,726,623 $19,286,434
RIM Rimfire Pacific 0.008 14% 100,000 $12,643,713
TMX Terrain Minerals 0.008 14% 63,750 $5,405,327
MGA Metalsgrovemining 0.2 14% 162,734 $6,300,088
FXG Felix Gold Limited 0.11 13% 30,000 $8,067,141
SOP Synertec Corporation 0.215 13% 371,441 $75,075,137
CHN Chalice Mining Ltd 6.3 13% 2,521,638 $2,095,975,371
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At the top of the small caps table this morning is Metalsgrove (ASX:MGA), which has gone soaring for no readily identifiable reason this morning. Most recently, MGA made the news with its high grade lithium-tantalum soil samples at Upper Coodina, but that was more than a month ago – but it’s trading 25.7% higher this morning.

Classic Minerals (ASX:CLZ) has also turned in a jump this morning, rising 22.22% to be trading higher than $0.01 again on no news, while Corazon (ASX:CZN) has climbed 19.0% on nearly half a million in volume so far today, and is now trading at $0.025.

Small caps, huh.

Leading the losses this morning is Widgie Nickel (ASX:WIN), which has fallen sharply after announcing assay results from its Faraday lithium project.

Let’s just say investors were clearly hoping for something a lot better, and Widgie’s trading 21.5% lower for the day so far.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for December 8 [intraday]:

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

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap
WOODA Wooboard Tech Ltd 0.012 -40% 338,001 $4,391,394
CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.001 -33% 150,000 $23,463,861
WBE Whitebark Energy 0.001 -33% 8,178,152 $9,697,329
DOW Downer EDI Limited 3.705 -23% 16,894,109 $3,224,637,062
WIN Widgienickellimited 0.405 -21% 3,586,446 $128,016,542
TKL Traka Resources 0.005 -17% 48,863 $4,132,647
ZAG Zuleika Gold Ltd 0.02 -17% 31,615 $12,517,215
GLH Global Health Ltd 0.22 -15% 2,500 $15,080,879
CVL Civmec Limited 0.53 -15% 10,897 $150,931,923
AJQ Armour Energy Ltd 0.006 -14% 883,000 $16,323,987
GTG Genetic Technologies 0.003 -14% 23,193,799 $32,318,878
IS3 I Synergy Group Ltd 0.032 -14% 42,499 $10,378,831
YRL Yandal Resources 0.1 -13% 165,694 $18,147,354
FFT Future First Tech 0.028 -13% 65,485 $21,751,194
GCR Golden Cross 0.007 -13% 72,142 $8,778,049
MTH Mithril Resources 0.0035 -13% 4,753,981 $11,760,932
CTQ Careteq Limited 0.06 -12% 452,166 $8,229,694
TTI Traffic Technologies 0.015 -12% 209,610 $12,276,893
DAL Dalaroometalsltd 0.115 -12% 71,711 $3,883,750
DMM Dmcmininglimited 0.115 -12% 45,416 $3,731,000
VTX Vertexmin 0.115 -12% 58,340 $5,911,750
BBX BBX Minerals Ltd 0.07 -11% 2,040 $38,450,997
OPA Optima Technology 0.07 -11% 50,000 $19,509,710
ICG Inca Minerals Ltd 0.024 -11% 698,122 $13,022,757
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