The end of the day in the middle of the week is upon us, and while the market overall has done pretty well, it’s been a little quiet in the Department of Major Announcements – which we’re thankful for, because the timing of the Socceroos’ match this morning was verging on extremely rude, especially for the Stockhead team who reside in WA.

But seeing as how you’re all such lovely people, a special spot to lounge by the Stockhead pool to sip and Old Fashioned is well and truly yours to enjoy, while we bring you up to speed on the stuff you might have missed from the markets, and elsewhere, today – then we can all get a nice early night.

 

FROM THE HEADLINES

Look – we don’t want to alarm anyone reading this, because it’s the end of the day and no one really needs to get to wound up right now, but… the clock is ticking for Aussie company directors to extract their proverbial thumbs from their actual anuses and get themselves a new Business ID through the ATO Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS).

The ATO has warned that Directors have until 30 November to get their unique 15-digit identifier, or get walloped with a $13,000 fine, which is gonna sting if you cop one.

Weirdly, a week out from the deadline, there are still more than 1 million Aussie company directors who haven’t registered for the new ID – and you can bet the balance of your last fat tax return that the ATO is licking its vulpine lips at the thought of pocketing better than $13 billion in fines.

Speaking of massive amounts of money, the headline hosts of Channel 10s info-journo-tain-ment-mercial thuddernaut The Project are piling out of their contracts faster than the props department can build them.

In recent days, pretty much all the big money magnets on The Project desk have gone public with news that they’re leaving – including wildly popular host Carrie Bickmore, Lisa Wilkinson and Peter Helliar.

Aussie funny guy an all-round smart person Dan Ilic (Hi, Dan!) has his own take on what might be going on…

 

… but even if that’s not the case, the fact that the major hosts have been storming the exits like the building’s on fire suggest something’s afoot.

And speaking of fire, a brief bit of news from the Online Pundit Department, after the home of Friendlyjordies Youtube Talking Person (I keep trying to type the word “star”, but that can’t be right…) was reportedly firebombed overnight.

Police say the blaze was suspicious – some top shelf detective work there, lads – but the list of likely culprits is going to take several thousand years to sift through, because Ol’ Mate Jordan’s made some pretty hefty enemies over the past couple of years.

Perhaps this is something the NSW Police Fixated Persons Unit might like to sink its teeth into, now that it’s no longer locking up the rest of the Friendlyjordies Youtube team…

 

FROM THE SPORTS BAR

The World Cup is obviously in full swing – you could tell by the number of Australian fans throwing bottles and fists at French supporters in Melbourne’s Federation Square at the tail end of the Socceroos’ dismal 4-1 defeat against their gallant, garlicky Gallic opponents.

 

 

There were no serious injuries reported – aside from some very hurt feelings and a bit of a dry cleaning bill – but the same can’t be said of Saudi Arabia’s opening match.

We should all spare a thought for Saudi defender Yasir Al Shahrani, who is recovering in hospital after a “cop that” from his own goalie that reportedly liquified his mug from nose to chin.

 

 

He’s likely to sit out the rest of the tournament, and will probably eat Thanksgiving dinner through a straw later this week.

 

LAST ORDERS

Local memory devs 4DS Memory (ASX:4DS) have been granted the company’s fourth US patent, offering crucial protection to the company’s stable of top-tech intellectual property.

The oh-so-excitingly-named “Resistive Memory Device Having an Oxide Barrier Layer” has, like the rest of the 4DS tech, been developed in-house and are free from any royalty and or licensing obligations – and if that patent name doesn’t have your heart pounding, perhaps it might be time to see a doctor. Or a mortician. Your call.

It’s positive news for 4DS which has seen its price wallowing in the doldrums after testing of the memory cells used in the imec megabit memory array showed unexpected problems with scaling the memory cell to small dimensions suitable for Storage Class Memory potential applications in mid-August.

But, despite the positive news, the needle’s barely moved on its trading price throughout the afternoon, because the whole world has gone mad over niobium again.

Meanwhile, Kaiser Reef (ASX:KAU) has some drilling results in and they’re thin but super high grade, with the company saying that the results continue to improve the deeper the drill program goes at its A1 Mine.

The listed results look like this:

  • A1UDH-504: 0.20m @ 9.9 g/t gold from 60.0m
  • A1UDH-505: 0.25m @ 17.5 g/t gold from 41.6m
  • A1UDH-509: 0.4m @ 69.2 g/t gold from 229.4m
  • A1UDH-510: 2.2m @ 23.8 g/t gold from 73.8m; including
    • A1UDH-510: 0.4m @ 47.3 g/t gold from 73.8m and
    • A1UDH-510: 0.2m @ 136.7 g/t gold from 75.8m
  • A1UDH-511: 0.4m @ 14.1 g/t gold from 79.8m
  • A1UDH-512: 4.0m @ 11.9 g/t gold from 34.65m; including
    • 1.0m @ 42.0 g/t gold from 36.65m
  • A1UDH-514: 0.2m @ 21.4 g/t Au from 101.10m
  • A1UDH-514: 0.3m @ 23.3 g/t gold from 103.0m

Kaiser says there’s more work to be done, and that this round of drilling is “delivering the intended results which are to provide the mining team with an increased range of mining options and justifying the investment and ramp up plans currently being pursued”.

 

TRADING HALTS

Musgrave Minerals (ASX:MGV) – Capital Raise.

EP&T Global (ASX:EPX) – Capital Raise.

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