Cries of ballot fraud are everywhere these days. From the loons who think that the 2020 US Presidential election was rigged, to the fruitcakes who think that the 2022 Ukraine referendums weren’t, accusations of cheating have gone from being the nuclear option to merely “Step 2” in a lengthy process of ballot box FUD.

And you’d expect it in a high-stakes game like global politics, where second-best is potentially career-ending and there are literally trillions of dollars at stake for whoever wins and holds power long enough to figure out how to steal it.

But it’s a sad, sad day for the world when even The Animal Kingdom is beset by allegations that a ballot box has been stuffed – but that’s exactly what has transpired and caused crisis-level heartburn for devotees of Fat Bear Week.

We talk, of course, of the annual contest run by staff at Katmai national park in Alaska (not the other Fat Bear Week, which just wrapped up in China), where an odd competition has been run for the past eight years.

The rules are simple: In July, rangers take photos of 12 carefully selected bears. In September, the bears are photographed again, and then a knock-out style competition takes place allowing internet users to vote on which bear they think got the fattest.

Because, America.

But also “because America”, this year, things went bad.

 

 

Staff discovered a massive 9,000 voting plunge on Bear 435, a husky female called Holly whose hobbies include fishing, sleeping in and eating tourists.

The eagle-eyed staff saw that all 9,000 votes were cast in an improbably short time period, and figured that strange things were afoot. Those votes were deemed to be improper, and the true winner of that knockout round was declared – 2020’s Fat Bear Week winner, Bear 747, who has advanced to the finals.

It’s hard to fathom who would want to game the Fat Bear Week ballot in such a hilariously inept way, but we won’t be at all surprised to find out in a few weeks that there’s a subcontinental illegal betting syndicate behind it, in the style of the fake IPL cricket tournament scam from earlier this year.

Voting continues, meanwhile, to see who will be crowned Fat Bear Week winner, with the results expected tomorrow. But God help US lawmakers if there’s even a whiff of controversy on the final result.

The idea of thousands of angry bears descending on Washington and invading The Capitol is too terrifying to comprehend.

But at least Fat Bear Week enthusiasts get to vote on their animals, unlike Australians who have apparently been lumbered with yet another Tourism Mascot that nobody remembers asking for.

Ruby the Roo was revealed today, and – as is almost always the case with these things – it’s set to TeAr AusTRaLia ApARt. Or something.

In an attempt to lure tourists to Australia, like a stranger with a “van full of puppies”, Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell has debuted Ruby the Roo on the world stage.

 

 

Farrell says Ruby the Roo “is, if you like, the new Paul Hogan”, so we look forward to the animated marsupial getting a disastrous facelift, starring in a subsequent string of increasingly terrible campaigns, before getting investigated for alleged tax fraud.

But that’s not going to happen, of course, after Warner Brothers fires up its legal team and sues the pants off Australia for launching a character that sounds exactly like Scooby Doo trying to say his own name.

 

TO MARKETS

First, we have an apology to make, for ruining Lunnon Metals’ day a little bit yesterday when our Trading Places article suggested two of Lunnon’s substantial shareholders, Aurora Prospects and Mainglow, had “sold out” of the company. They did lose substantial shareholder status, but not due to any selling.

The Form 605 “Notice of ceasing to be a substantial shareholder” submitted by both parties to the ASX on 6 October 2022 was required simply due to the recent issue of 21,505,376 shares to St Ives Gold Mining Co. Pty Ltd in consideration of the acquisition of nickel rights announced on 12 April 2022.

The subsequent dilution resulted in both Aurora Prospects and Mainglow therefore falling below the 5% substantial shareholder threshold. Neither has sold any shares.

That was unfortunate. Sorry Lunnon.

Aussie markets opened with a deadset case of the jitters this morning, swerving either side of the break-even median strip like it had a liquid brekky at an early-opener and now it’s late for lunch.

As the clock struck 12pm, the benchmark was up 0.2% but it’s swinging about pretty wildly and it’s anyone’s guess how the day’s going to play out, while Financials (+1.30%) does all the enthusiastic tugging it can to get the index into the black.

It’s facing some stiff competition, though, with InfoTech (-1.25%) and Utilities (-1.33%) crippling any forward momentum, like a pair of torn hamstrings.

At the flashy end of town, Bank of Queensland (ASX:BOQ) has reported a 15% YoY jump in statutory net profit after tax to $426 million, which investors are trying to emulate with an 8.2% lift in trading price this morning.

Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) is also on a charge, reversing a few days’ worth of losses by climbing 5.3% this morning, with Stanmore (ASX:SMR) along for the ride, up by 5.4% as well.

Lucking out this morning is Energy mob Infratil (ASX:IFT), which had been climbing nicely since 07 October to add 7.6%, before dumping most of that with a 5.3% dive in morning trade.

Time to take a look overseas, to check how global markets have responded to Australia’s new tourism mascot.

 

NOT THE ASX

It’s not every day this happens, but US markets were mixed overnight, the session ending with the Nasdaq down 1.10% and the Standard & Poor’s ending sub-standard and poorer by 0.65%.

However, the Dow has clearly had its own little party and not invited the other two, reporting a 0.12% gain when the bell to down pencils and head home finally rang.

Roving reporter Eddy “I’m back from holidays… what’d I miss?” Sunarto reports that stocks US and Europe were mainly pulled lower as the Bank of England (BoE) announced it will end its emergency intervention in the UK bond market by Friday.

BoE governor Andrew Bailey said he did not expect the bank’s £65bn gilts purchasing programme to extend beyond this week.

Yields on long term bonds jumped on the news (bond prices lower), with the US 30-year yield rising 12 basis points to 3.96%, the highest in nine years.

In Asia, Shanghai is lower by 0.24%, Hong Kong is even lower by 0.64% and Japan has clearly been left utterly perplexed by the sudden appearance of an animated kangaroo in Tokyo, where markets are flat because everyone is pressed up against the glass of the Tokyo Exchange hoping to catch a glimpse of Ruby the Roo in action, before it gets shot and eaten.

In commodities, oil has dropped 0.85% while gas has crept up 0.11%. Precious metals have taken a beating, though, with gold down 0.90%, copper down 1.34% and silver plummeting 2.04%.

And, down the back of the Crypto Couch, there are a few loose coins to be found – but not a lot of added value from the majors, despite BTC adding 0.5% and ETH putting on 1.0% in the past 24 hours.

Now, as always, there’s much more to learn – and Rob “I wouldn’t mind owning a couch someday” Badman has all the goss over at Mooners and Shakers.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for October 12 [intraday]:

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

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap
CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.002 100% 4,020,360 $15,102,574
JAV Javelin Minerals Ltd 0.0015 50% 1,027,120 $9,454,153
OLL Openlearning 0.038 36% 2,069,684 $6,002,763
CAD Caeneus Minerals 0.004 33% 250,752 $16,036,815
SGQ St George Min Ltd 0.051 28% 32,580,577 $28,000,712
GME GME Resources Ltd 0.145 26% 895,744 $69,046,117
RMX Red Mount Min Ltd 0.006 20% 210,000 $8,211,819
YPB YPB Group Ltd 0.006 20% 166,666 $2,032,731
SHO Sportshero Ltd 0.025 19% 2,044,644 $11,965,682
REC Rechargemetals 0.17 17% 4,021 $5,770,275
E33 East 33 Limited. 0.035 17% 28,580 $8,278,845
QPM Queensland Pacific 0.175 17% 29,586,058 $235,756,970
TMK TMK Energy Limited 0.021 17% 9,515,204 $63,374,063
MEI Meteoric Resources 0.014 17% 370,773 $18,315,568
MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.007 17% 257,142 $35,709,436
NRX Noronex Limited 0.036 16% 719,531 $5,284,253
MGA Metalsgrovemining 0.22 16% 103,620 $6,840,095
DCN Dacian Gold Ltd 0.12 14% 3,948,573 $127,764,098
LME Limeade Inc. 0.12 14% 44,651 $26,826,546
ENV Enova Mining Limited 0.017 13% 92,163 $5,508,226
RB6 Rubixresources 0.13 13% 86,313 $3,110,750
BTE Botalaenergyltd 0.18 13% 10,000 $8,426,667
PWN Parkway Corp Ltd 0.009 13% 2,900,000 $17,706,244
CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.002 100% 4,020,360 $15,102,574
JAV Javelin Minerals Ltd 0.0015 50% 1,027,120 $9,454,153
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Standout winner among the Small Caps today is St George Mining (ASX:SGQ), which has surged 37.5% on news that it has delivered on its quest to slay the dragon at Mt Alexander and drag home a huge pile of lithium.

St George says drilling has uncovered high-grade lithium within several stacked pegmatite dykes in a north-south zone extending up to 1.7km, named the Jailbreak Lithium Prospect, and selected results look like this:

  • MARK152-2: 1.97% Li 2 O, 715ppm Cs, 166ppm Ta 2O5 and 13,765ppm Rb
  • MARK263: 1.15% Li 2 O, 211 ppm Cs, 51ppm Ta 2O5 and 5,825ppm Rb
  • MARK267: 1.68% Li 2 O, 164ppm Cs, 104ppm Ta 2O5 and 7,700ppm Rb
  • MARK268: 2.72% Li 2 O, 756ppm Cs, 60ppm Ta 2O5 and 11,530ppm Rb

Meanwhile, Openlearning’s (ASX:OLL) roar up the charts has continued today, with OLL stacking on a further 32.1% this morning to take it to a barnstorming 48% increase in price for the week.

And GME Resources (ASX:GME) – not that GME, our GME – has come out of a trading halt firing a double-barrel blast of big news, namely:

  1. It’s signed a non-binging MoU with automaker superstar Stellantis for future offtake of Battery Grade nickel and cobalt sulphate, and
  2. It’s secured commitments for a Placement of approximately 42.1 million shares at a price of A$0.095 to raise $4.0 million to advance its NiWest nickel-cobalt project.

Either of those bits of news would have been enough to get investor juices flowing, so its no surprise that GME is trading 30.4% higher already today.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the most-worst performing ASX small cap stocks for October 12 [intraday]:

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

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap
DAF Discovery Alaska Ltd 0.034 -45% 4,589,934 $13,902,551
ANL Amani Gold Ltd 0.001 -33% 417,000 $35,540,162
ARE Argonaut Resources 0.001 -33% 1,266,123 $8,142,807
DDD 3D Resources Limited 0.0015 -25% 1,145,102 $8,863,744
GGX Gas2Grid Limited 0.0015 -25% 266,429 $8,116,204
WBE Whitebark Energy 0.0015 -25% 150,000 $12,929,772
SYN Synergia Energy Ltd 0.002 -20% 252,819 $21,044,477
LNYDA Laneway Res Ltd 0.2 -17% 55,770 $40,823,072
SGA Sarytogan 0.245 -16% 3,429,451 $17,895,071
NIM Nimy Resources 0.26 -15% 309,560 $16,832,792
B4P Beforepay Group 0.35 -15% 22,199 $14,279,979
GMN Gold Mountain Ltd 0.006 -14% 550,000 $10,382,044
GTG Genetic Technologies 0.003 -14% 3,200,000 $32,318,878
HLX Helix Resources 0.006 -14% 49,526,621 $16,262,021
GAS State GAS Limited 0.32 -14% 399,641 $73,937,953
A3D Aurora Labs Limited 0.032 -14% 369,207 $6,813,849
PNT Panthermetalsltd 0.18 -12% 10,000 $6,252,500
ATM Aneka Tambang 1.01 -12% 165 $1,499,196
BCA Black Canyon Limited 0.22 -12% 7,500 $11,210,619
HZN Horizon Oil Limited 0.13 -11% 2,152,864 $234,604,988
AYT Austin Metals Ltd 0.008 -11% 3,557,211 $9,142,872
CAZ Cazaly Resources 0.033 -11% 2,462,536 $13,720,406
TOU Tlou Energy Ltd 0.025 -11% 46,033 $16,805,748
RAG Ragnar Metals Ltd 0.026 -10% 1,808,870 $10,996,362
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