Rise and Shine: Everything you need to know before the ASX opens

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Monday 25 September. It was a momentous day in history quite some time ago, because on this day in 1512, a fella by the name of Vasco Núñez de Balboa stood on top of a mountain in the Darien region of the Isthmus (skinny bit) of Panama, looked to the southeast and became the first recorded European to lay eyes on the mighty Pacific Ocean.

Huge news, obviously, which led (directly or indirectly, it doesn’t matter) to the founding of the township of Byron Bay, widely considered to have been one of the worst mis-steps in the history of Europeans going places other than Europe.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa, it should be noted, was a complete dumpster fire of a human being. He was known throughout his homeland and the New World for stuff like stealing every scrap of gold he could get his grubby hands on, rounding up and enslaving pretty much every local from Panama and elsewhere that he could find, and setting his large pack of brutal Spanish war dogs on anyone who ticked him off.

He was eventually beheaded in 1519 for a laundry list of crimes against the Spanish royal family, including treason, putting a huge black blot on the Balboa family name that remained in place for 457 years, until a direct descendent (about 15 generations later) stepped into the ring with World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Apollo Creed and got hit so hard he’s been  calling himself Sylvester Stalone and strutting around like a big time Hollywood bozo ever since.

That powerful documentary still stands up pretty well in the modern era, as a powerful tale of the little guys triumphing over the titans of the world above them – something many folks are looking for today on the ASX, after the slow and inglorious retreat into the mire for the benchmark last week.

Hoping to launch redemption, if not outright retribution, for teh ASX has been the Stockhead  Department of Writing stuff – including the wonderfully intense Barry Fitzgerald’s view that there is still a surprisingly high number of good value, low dollar lithium buys kicking around.

Eddy Sunarto’s there to tell you why 52-week highs and RSI are great trading tools, and it’s got algorithms in it, so you know it’s legit.

And, it you’re like a lot of small cap investors who’ve become a little bit sick of hearing about “The L Word”, Jess Cummins has some excellent news – there’s a lot more than just lithium on the menu in the planet’s hottest resources precinct: Canada.

TIme to get warmed up before the markets start running in earnest – and here’s the data and digits you’ll need to get that off a cracking start today.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,945.6 (+0.66%)

Silver: US$23.305 (-0.31%)

Nickel (3mth): US$19,936/t (-1.56%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,375/t (-0.55%)

Oil (WTI): US$91.20 (+0.57%)

Oil (Brent): US$94.27 (+0.14%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$121.29/t (+0.6%)

AUD/USD: 0.6445 (+-0.02%)

Bitcoin: US$26,604.00 (+0.17%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Everyone who hasn’t been killed instantly by the size of the docket the last time they filled up their car would have noticed that oil is getting pretty pricey of late – and our look into the hows and whys of that phenomenon really captured your attention at the end of last week.

Crude oil looks to be on track to break the US$100 per barrel mark but it might not stay at that price point for long. #crudeoil #brent #oilprice #renewableenergy #solar https://t.co/1IB6haXpca

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) September 21, 2023

FRIDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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Friday’s Small Caps highlights were:

Mithril Resources (ASX:MTH) doubled its share price to a whopping 0.002c, up 100% on no particular news, while Eneco Refresh (ASX:ERG) found 78%, also with no news to guide it – as did White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN, up 20% on reasonable volume Friday, despite no market-moving news for more than a week.

The hero of the dish on Friday was surprise packet tech group Symbio Holdings (ASX:SYM), after it said it is mulling a final takeover offer from Superloop (ASX:SLC) which dropped that morning, giving the share price a worthy circa 20% boost in early trade to around $2.69.

In addition, with Symbio sitting on 15 cents per share worth of franking credits, the offer will lift to $3.06 per share if these are released via a special dividend from the ASX tech share prior to implementation.

FRIDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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TRADING HALTS

Aurum Resources (ASX:AUE) – For the purposes of considering, planning and executing a capital raising

Jayride (ASX:JAY) – Pending news of a capital raising

MetalsTech (ASX:MTC) – In relation to the 100% acquisition of a significant package of exploration licenses prospective for hard rock lithium

Orbital Corporation (ASX:OEC) – Pending news of a capital raising