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

On Stockhead today, six experts – six! – on how to shield against inflation, China exposed by housing woes, and which Gen is the riskiest Gen?

But first, the day ahead.

Local shares are set to open lower today. At 8am AEDT, the ASX 200 July futures is pointing down by 0.40%.

The RBA beefed up rates this month by another 50 basis points to 1.35%.

Be on the lookout for the RBA meeting minutes which could give a sense of where we’re headed as energy prices and inflation continue to dominate the market.

TRADING HALTS

ANZ (ASX:ANZ) – I think they mentioned something this morning about buying a bank? 

Aurumin (ASX:AUN) – Hat tip. Sorry… cap raise. Same thing. 

Alderan Resources (ASX:AL8) – Capital raise to rebuild the planet that was blown up by the Death Star. Possibly.

Victory Goldfields (ASX:1VG) – Exploration results incoming.

Marmota (ASX:MEU) – capital raising via placement to sophisticated and professional investors. (aka “Stockhead readers”. Right? Right?)

MARKETS

Gold: $US1,708.67 (+0.11%)

Silver: $US18.67 (-0.10%)

Nickel (3mth): $US20,560/t (+6.06%)

Copper (3mth): $US7,384.50/t (+2.70%)

Lithium Carbonate, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, June 30): $US69,750/t (0.0% weekly)

Lithium Hydroxide, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, June 30): $US70,875/t (0.0% weekly)

Oil (WTI): $US101.80 (+4.31%)

Oil (Brent): $US105.20 (+3.99%)

Iron 62pc Fe (Singapore futures): $US106.69 (+2.29%)

AUD/USD: 0.6813 (+0.10%)

Bitcoin: $US21,719 (+3.18%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKIN’ YESTERDAY?

Everyone it seems is cranking up the volume on the absolute nightmare fuel that is Julie Bishop’s employee induction video for ASX iron ore and lithium giant Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN).

Within hours the former Foreign Minister was getting asked in interviews about the break-up of her relationship, a story not a single right-minded person outside the Canberra bubble could possibly care about.

Back to the vid and she’s not alone, rubbing shoulders with MinRes executives and a catalogue of almost celebrities, not limited to former Grey’s Anatomy actress and WA lockdown loiterer Kate Walsh and overpaid West Coast Eagles backman Jeremy McGovern.

The real firepower comes from Hugh Jackman, who apparently holds meetings with MinRes brass to secure personal supplies of lithium.

“The best part was Hugh Jackman reaching out to Ms Bishop to score a refill of his mood stabiliser medication,” resident huckster and Lunch Wrap impresario Gregor Stronach says.

The conceit of the ad is that the promise of working alongside Bishop — whose performance is as plastic as the Barbie doll Mattel modelled after her — and MinRes’ myriad employee benefits will win the company workers in an infamously competitive WA job market.

Bishop’s clearly not an actress, even if she reinforces the long-held suspicion politicians are wannabe celebrities who didn’t possess the talent to make it on screen.

But she’s probably not the worst thing here.

MinRes’ new Osborne Park digs feature a fancy restaurant, gym, art gallery and home brand version of Apple’s genius bar, perversely blurring the already thin line between work and real life.

It’s something they’re calling the “future in workplace wellness”, a world so fun you’ll forget you’re doing double overtime.

YESTERDAY’S SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for July 18

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

Look, first up – something’s gone on at the Sarytogan Graphite (ASX:SGA) corporate presso today, because this newly listed graphite digger is rising like a souffle.

The explorer has its mitts and eyes all over the Sarytogan Graphite Project in Central Kazakhstan, hunting a commodity un-substitutable in the battery market, with drilling kicking off late last month.

Kazakhstan, aside from being a great place to take the missus for a quick lap around the Urals, is also an established mining jurisdiction right in the middle of the largest battery manufacturers in Europe and China.

Kincora Copper (ASX:KCC) soared a mega-healthy 49% on news about its best assay results to date from its Trundle project.

For those of you into assay porn, the sexy little numbers look like this: 34m @ 1.02g/t gold and 0.24% copper, including 2m @ 12.6g/t gold and 2.32% copper, within a broader zone containing 104m @ 0.46g/t gold and 0.11% copper.

Lode Resources (ASX:LDR) has also got two solid loads of Delightful Drilling Digits to share from its Webbs Consol Silver-Base Metal Project, which were enough to send its price climbing nearly 40% this morning.

The company says one hole has looks like this: 50.0m grading 284g/t silver equivalent from 17m:

• • 50.0m @ 284g/t AgEq from 17.0m
  • 38.1m @ 370g/t AgEq from 24.6m
  • 15.0m @ 582g/t AgEq from 38.1m
  • 1.1m @ 1,001g/t AgEq from 49.9m
  • 0.6m @ 1,362g/t AgEq from 52.5m

Phwoar.

Off piste, but worth noting Hansen Technologies (ASX:HSN) was up about 7%, the global provider of software and services to the energy, water, and communication industries locking in a partnership expansion with Energy Queensland (EQL) – where owners of Australia’s largest electricity distribution network have committed to upgrade to the latest version of Hansen CIS.

The expanded agreement will also be taking new products in Hansen MDM for meter data management and Hansen NBM for network bill management and includes an upgrade of EQL’s existing Hansen CIS for customer care and billing onto Hansen’s latest SaaS platform.

This new agreement builds on the existing long-term relationship between Hansen and EQL and is for an initial term of five years with associated revenue of around $45m.

HSN global chief executive Andrew Hansen says this new agreement adding Hansen MDM and Hansen NBM to the upgrade of Hansen CIS on its latest SaaS platform is a fantastic example of Hansen’s ability to partner with customers, provide valuable solutions and spatter the earth with a remarkable quantity of Three Letter Acronyms (TLAs).

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for July 18

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