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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Monday, 20 November – a date on the calendar that holds a special place in the lycra-clad hearts of bicycle enthusiasts everywhere.

For it was on this day in 1866 that a French fella by the name of Pierre Lallement filed a patent for a rotary crank bicycle, inadvertently creating the so-called “fixie” bicycle that led to an outbreak of massive thighs among the more dedicated hipsters in Melbourne and Sydney around 2008.

It’s also a special cycling date as it was exactly 36 years later in 1902 that Geo Lefevre and Henri Desgrange, tired of bicycle races that started in Paris and ended up in another country altogether, came up with the revolutionary idea to hold a race that started and finished in France.

And thus, the Tour de France was born.

Sales of Lallement’s rotary crank bicycles boomed, followed shortly thereafter by a flurry of scientific activity that led directly to the development of anabolic steroids, and the enduringly popular “shameful sporting apology” that is still in use by professional athletes to this day.

Fun fact: The colour of the famous “Yellow Jersey” worn by the leader of the event at the end of each stage of the Tour was originally inspired by the luminous shade of the urine samples provided by competitors in the earliest years of the race.

Of course, with no possible way of testing the samples for performance enhancing drugs that wouldn’t exist for at least another 30 years, there was no actual need for riders to provide urine samples – race organiser Henri Desgrange “liked to have the piss jars around, just to look at and maybe to smell sometimes”, according to his friends and family members.

Described by Dutch philosopher Clog Knuckledrag as “the worst thing to happen to humanity since the Eurovision Song Contest”, the Tour de France turned out to be wildly popular among spectators, but caused considerable geopolitical friction throughout the region.

A strict limit on the number of entries per country was imposed in the early 1940s, after German Chancellor Adolf Hitler – an avid cycling enthusiast whose passion for the sport knew no bounds – sent more than 3,000,000 German competitors to Paris in 1940 to take part in the race.

France promptly surrendered, and the rest is (literally) history.

Speaking of surrenders, you know who just. won’t. quit. when it comes to their passion and dedication to their craft, and their audience?

That’s right – it’s the team here at Stockhead, who have been beavering away all weekend to bring you some truly gripping yarns to sink your teeth into before the market opens today.

That includes Eddy Sunarto’s brilliant effort to blame Sir Isaac Newton for the stock exchange, and Stockhead’s very own ambulatory dairy product Christian “Chedward” Edwards’ dusting off of his high school economics textbook to explain just how battle-scarred Aussie debt-lovers have become in the past 12 months.

Plus, as always, here’s all the fiddly data and digits to get you up to speed this morning as well.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,980.39 (-0.04%)

Silver: US$23.72 (-0.01%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,776.14/t (-1.06%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,168.05/t (+0.57%)

Oil (WTI): US$75.89 (+4.10%)

Oil (Brent): US$80.52 (+3.11%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$132.50/t (-0.38%)

AUD/USD: 0.6510 (+0.61%)

Bitcoin: US$36,533 (-0.07%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Everyone seemed keen for a recap of the week we just had – here’s a link to the wrap-up of last week that was otherwise inexplicably popular.

#ASX #SmallCaps and #IPO Weekly Wrap:

✨ It was a week of mixed fortunes that left the ASX 200 up 0.5%
✨ Real Estate, InfoTech and Materials all banked > 3% gains
✨ The week’s big winner was Kula gold, up 150% and one of five to break the ton https://t.co/3j81oJM429

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) November 17, 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:

The Stockhead collective Spidey-sense was left tingling on Friday regarding the absolutely flying share price of the Aussie regtech play Identitii (ASX:ID8), which – while not exactly in crisis – has no idea who or why or how it surged so nicely late on Friday in the arvo.

The ASX speeding cops issued (at 3.35pm) a price query… A quick peek under the hood showed there wasn’t much official happening in the life of ID8, but a bunch of well-directed hack attacks (which we’ve been watching of late) could quickly change all that for this security software provider.

Also on Friday, we enjoyed the adventures of Aussie edu-SaaS play, KNeoMedia (ASX:KNM) which booked a +50% rocket early in the day.

KNM says it’s in receipt of a second tranche of cash, paid out by the New York Department of Education, which is deploying KNM’s ‘Connect All Kids’ education initiative. The $700k from New York is part 2 of a 3-part series.

KNeoMedia says that it is in talks with the New York DOE around expanding its current offering, both through growing existing usage of the company’s tech and through the development of other complementary products, and as such it anticipates further payments from the US in due course.

Tasfoods (ASX:TFL)  meanwhile, has received ACCC approval to sell its Betta Milk and Meander Valley Dairy businesses to Bega Cheese (ASX:BGA), for a cool $11 million.

It’s a sweet deal for both sides – Tasfoods pockets the cash, Bega gets the businesses as well as a perpetual, royalty free licence to use the Pyengana Dairy brand for milk and cream products in Australia.

Now with the offiicial ACCC nod, TFL  expects all the paperwork and glad-handing to be done by the end of the calendar year.

Among the diggers, MinRex Resources (ASX:MRR) surged +33% moments from the close of trade, because it’s on the hunt up near Global Lithium Resources’ (ASX:GL1) renowned spod-bearing-pegmatite-swarming Archer deposit.

Rising like the price of magnetite in late trade, Magnetite Mines (ASX:MGT) on Wednesday signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pacific Partnerships, which is a subsidiary of the giant CIMIC Group. MGT says the MoU is to support the development, and – potentially – financing of the Razorback Iron Ore Project, and to establish a foundation for Early Contractor Involvement

“The MoU contemplates a consortium-based approach to the development of green iron hubs in the Upper Spencer Gulf in line with emerging South Australian  Government strategy,” the company added.

Finally, up circa 15% after lunch Friday, another local Conspiring-in-Canada lithium stock – Battery Age Minerals (ASX:BM8) – says it’s been green lit by Ontario’s Ministry of Mines to continue Phase 2 exploration drilling across the entire 5km prospective corridor at its Falcon Lake lithium project.

Earlier drilling in said spot returned an intercept of 19.1m at 1.34% Li2O – and there’s more than 30 new targets identified through its summer field work program.

FRIDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

TRADING HALTS

Aurora Labs (ASX:A3D) – Pending an announcement regarding a capital raising.

Bryah Resources (ASX:BYH) – Pending an announcement regarding a capital raising.

VDM Group (ASX:VMG) – Pending the outcome of an announcement relating to the outcome of a submission by the Company relating to its compliance with Listing Rules 12.1 and 12.2. Oops.

Turaco Gold (ASX:TCG) – Pending an announcement in relation to a potential material purchase.