On Stockhead today,

You’ll meet the EV dragon, China’s largest battery producer, CATL.

So big they’re thinking about pegging their battery prices to the lithium spot market, customers be damned.

So huge Obi Wan Kenobi also reckons they’re no moon.

So preposterously dominant, they just doubled profits and revenue on thinning margins ‘cos lithium prices are nuts, but demand for their work is nuts’er.

And – according to new research – CATL can now lay claim to almost 40% of the global battery market.

So why is the Chinese president most displeased..?

Elsewhere, Guy on Rocks is talking bearish lithium and gold bullion.

Our Day Trader, the bottom picker, is confessing to some splendid greed…

Oh, and in California, Silicon Valley Bank was hit by a bank run last week as depositors withdrew a whopping US$42bn within a matter of days, triggering a selloff in other US bank stocks. What will they think of next?

But first, the day ahead…

 

TRADING HALTS

The following stocks went into trading halts Friday and are expected out in the coming days:

Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R) – Capital Raising

Jade Gas (ASX:JGH) – Capital Raising

C29 Metals (ASX:C29) – Exploration results from Pocitos 7

FBR (ASX:FBR) – Capital Raising

Polymetals Resources (ASX:POL) – ASX speeding ticket, plus there’s a material acquisition in the works

Incannex Healthcare (ASX:IHL) – Material update regarding the company’s psychedelic program

 

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: $US1,867.09 (+1.98%)

Silver: $US20.52 (+2.24%)

Nickel (3mth): $US23,269/t (-2.94%)

Copper (3mth): $US8853.50/t (-0.65%)

Oil (WTI): $US76.68 (+1.27%)

Oil (Brent): $US82.56 (+1.19%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US130.50/t (1.16%)

AUD/USD: 0.6579 (-0.17%)

Bitcoin: $US20,584 (+2.43%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING OVER THE WEEKEND?

Well, this aged badly.

 

Meanwhile, gold is everyone’s favourite again.

Prices exploded higher as Fed rate hike bets were scaled down and SVB contagion risks triggered some safe-haven buying.

 

 

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For all you crypto lovers Stockhead’s Coinhead Facebook group is the place to share your views, insights, tips and ideas.

Also, be sure to check in preopen each day for ‘Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch’, and 10.30am for our daily ‘10 at 10’ column — a live summary of winners & losers at the opening bell.

 

LAST WEEK’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks from 03 – 10 Mar:

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

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Human resources stock WooBoard (ASX:WOO) will issue $1m worth of convertible notes at 6% pa interest rate and a conversion price of 1.5c – a 200% premium to the current share price.

Iron ore-gold explorer Mindax (ASX:MDX) has surged since emerging from a year-long suspension March 1.

Its main game is the 80% owned Mt Forrest iron project but drilling of five targets at the Meekatharra gold project should kick off sometime this month, the company said January.

It also has an early stage project, Mt Lucky, which is next door to Great Southern Mining’s (ASX:GSN) 59,000oz Mon Ami deposit.

Security tech stock YPB (ASX:YPB) will use its invisible YPB Tracer technology to address pull tab/instant lottery ticket fraud in the US.

As part of a three-year deal, an initial purchase order of US$19,573 has been placed with Smart-tab Systems LLC to commence the initial rollout.

Prescient Therapeutics (ASX:PTX) has been granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) from the US Food and Drug Administration for its PTX-100 drug for the treatment of T cell lymphomas.

And department store Myer (ASX:MYR) climbed after releasing its half-year results.

The retailer reported 24% increase in on pcp to sales of $1.885 billion, for a bottom line NPAT of $65 million which was double the profit it made in the pcp.

 

 

LAST WEEK’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks from 03 – 10 Mar:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

Bravura Solutions (ASX:BVS)  launched a fully underwritten A$23m institutional placement and A$57m entitlement offer at $0.40 a pop — a 52.9% discount to the last closing price.

The announcement comes on the heels of Bravura revealing that things are Not Great there at the moment, with its 1H23 results showing a steep decline in revenue, and earnings guidance pointing in the wrong direction, to the tune of a loss of between $19m and $24m.

And it wasn’t a great week for Rhythm Biosciences (ASX:RHY), which plummeted after announcing that it had withdrawn its submission to the TGA for its ColoSTAT bowel cancer screening tech.

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