On Stockhead today, can nickel return to normal after the war and squeeze, who’s listing on the ASX over the next fortnight and the Nasdaq’s big tech buying opportunities.

But first, the day ahead.

Local shares are set to open higher today. At 8am AEDT, the ASX 200 March futures is pointing up by 0.29%.

A new Westpac poll asking ‘where is the wisest place to put your savings?’ has captured the increasingly dour consumer sentiment.

The results:

  • Banks 31.1%
  • Pay Debt 21.8%
  • Shares 11.4%
  • Real Estate 9.8%
  • Don’t Know 5.5%
  • Superannuation 4.9%

Just 4.4% said “spend it”.

And it’s a quiet week for ‘top shelf’ data from the Australian Bureau of Stats (ABS). Today it releases the Weekly Payroll Jobs and Wages publication with Corrective Services and Industrial Disputes, as well as small area data on Building Approvals.

 

TRADING HALTS

The following companies are in Trading Halts and are expected out in the coming days.

Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT) – capital raising

Firebird Metals (ASX:FRB) – updated mineral resource estimate

Structural Monitoring Systems (ASX:SMN) – capital raising

Sacgasco (ASX:SGC) – “material” farm-out in the Philippines

Riversgold (ASX:RGL) – acquisition and a capital raising

Incannex Healthcare (ASX:IHL) – preliminary results of its phase 2 clinical trial assessing IHL-42X in patients

 

MARKETS (updated at 7.45am AEDT)

Gold: $US1,993.20 (-2.89%)

Silver: $US25.78 (-2.28%)

Oil (WTI): $US110.30 (-10.83%)

Oil (Brent): $US112.84 (-11.82%)

Aust Coking Coal (steelmaking): $627.50/t (+0.00%)

Newcastle Coal (thermal): $197/t (0.00%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US157.59 (-2.09%)

AUD/USD: $US0.7324 (+0.70%)

Bitcoin: $US41,816 (+8.62%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING YESTERDAY?

Bitcoin is charging as the whole crypto space threatens a recovery.

 

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Also, be sure to check in at 10.20am each day for our daily ‘10 at 10’ column — a live summary of winners & losers at the opening bell.

 

YESTERDAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

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It was a bit of a tempest for Live Tiles (ASX:TLV), the digital workplace software maker swinging higher throughout Wednesday.

Yesterday morning Citi analysts said the firm’s ARR growth was expected to pick-up as churn events come to an end.

Citi says LVT’s customer growth picked up in 2Q, its mobile app (Reach) is nicely driving growth, the cash burn (after three acquisitions) will reduce significantly and at current prices there’s a lot of “valuation appeal”.

K2fly Limited (ASX:K2F), is a wee mining software solutions company which fell about 14% on Tuesday, after revealing it had suspected a bit of tax fraud at its South African subsidiary.

Regardless, K2F shares recovered Wednesday, gaining more than 20%.

Explorer Hammer Metals (ASX:HMX) hit 11m at 5% copper and 2.5g/t gold from 24m —  350m from a giant 500m long, 500m deep conductor – at the Ajax prospect.

This prompted MD Daniel Thomas to call Ajax “one of the more exceptional exploration targets that I have observed”.

 

YESTERDAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow fell after making announcements during the trading day).

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Investors weren’t entirely psyched to hear eSports and gaming tech company Emerge Gaming (ASX:EM1) was selling its Migster Platform for $5 million. The share price did not respawn after dropping ~20% to 2c.

The Migster online eSports and casual gaming tournament platform technology and lifestyle hub is being sold as part of a strategic review of Emerge’s assets to Nibiru e-gaming AB, which according to the company’s website is based in Stockholm.