Good morning everyone, and welcome to 10 January, 2024 – an important date in the history of the Energy sector, as it was on this day in 1901 that the town of Beaumont, Texas became synonymous with the Great American Commodity: Oil.

Around a decade before Beaumont’s first oil derrick fired its moneyshot into the air like a gigantic, pulsating black zit, a fella called Patillo Higgins put his “amateur geologist” skills to the test, and became convinced that there was an enormous reserve of oil lurking under a salt-dome formation south of the town.

Higgins and a rag-tag bunch of wealthy investors spent close to 10 years drilling dusters at the site, until – thoroughly disillusioned – Higgins left the company, possibly to grow his hair long and start the hot yoga fad that continues unabated around the world to this day, but probably not.

What he did do, however, was lease a patch of land to a young mining engineer called Anthony Lucas, whose preferred form of geology was a lot further towards the ‘professional’ end of the scale than Higgins.

Lucas and his associated poked a hole in the ground at a spot called Spindletop Hill, a great gush of greasy hydrocarbons spewed forth, and yea verily there was much rejoicing, possibly including a very early example of Rich Texas Oil Baron dancing while shooting their six-guns in the air.

Higgins’ theory was vindicated, but it was not the happy ending that he had hoped for – by the time Lucas and his cohort had begun to squeeze the great oily breast of America, Higgins’ ownership stake on the land was long gone.

In less than 12 months, more than 285 operating oil wells had been sunk in and around Spindletop, attracting workers, con men and prostitutes from around the world, each hoping to make it rich in their own particular way.

And it was there that three small companies began life, before blossoming into corporate behemoths – Humble, (which became Exxon), the Texas Company (which shortened its name to Texaco to save on ink as a cost-cutting measure) and Magnolia Petroleum Company, which changed its name to Mobil after mysterious thick, black pollution poisoned every Magnolia within 100 miles. Allegedly.

But enough with the history lesson for today, because there’s things here you’re going to want to read before the market gets kicking along at 10am, including Eddy Sunarto’s always informative look at what’s happening in the wild, wild world of IPOs, and Rob “It’s Badman” Badnam has put metaphorical pen to allegorical paper, and produced an Energy-related tale that is sure to get your motor running.

Plus, down below, there’s all the data and digits that are rapidly becoming the bane of my existence, because they never stop changing and that’s re-triggering my childhood fear of unstable numbers.

Especially number 4 – a real shifty lookin’ bastard, that one.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,032.76 (+0.24%)

Silver: US$23.14 (+0.19%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,071.51/t (+2.37%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,346.00/t (-0.26%)

Oil (WTI): US$70.95 (+0.25%)

Oil (Brent): US$76.15 (+0.04%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$140.50/t (-0.71%)

AUD/USD: 0.6714 (0.00%)

Bitcoin: US$46,727.30 (-0.57%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

So, Badman’s gone rogue again and now all he wants to talk about is crypto – which is actually great, because he knows his stuff when it comes to imaginary money…

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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Yesterday’s Small Caps highlights were:

The small caps results for Tuesday  09 January are brought to you by the word “confusing”, because it was all a little hard to get a handle on throughout the day.

There were lots of small caps moving briskly around the market without the usual niceties of telling us why – and there were genuinely far too many of them to list every single one… but a quick glance suggested that most of them are little goldies, making hay while spot prices remain above US$2,000/oz.

Up near the top of the list with a 17% spike was Rincon Resources (ASX:RCR), which last had news for the ASX on 03 January when the company announced that drilling had confirmed wide zones of mineralisation at its Westin Prospect in WA.

Later in the day, Monday’s debutante Kali Metals (ASX:KAL) fired back into life, adding another 23% to the 78% it stacked on during its first day on the bourse.

And Widgie Nickel (ASX:WIN) enjoyed a boost of its own, after investors took their sweet time digesting an early morning announcement that of an updated JORC-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate for its Gillett nickel deposit.

Widgie says there is a lot more nickel at the site – we’re talking a 75% increase in total contained nickel versus the 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate – and that’s got investors up and out of their seats, pushing the company nearly 24% higher.

At the not-awesome end of the scale, however, is Talisman Mining (ASX:TLM) – it lost 14% before lunch after delivering news of further assay results from additional RC drillholes completed at the Durnings Prospect, part of the company’s 100%-owned Lachlan Project in NSW, which appear to have underwhelmed investors.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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TRADING HALTS

Alumina (ASX:AWC) – pending receipt of information in respect of an expected decision by Alcoa Corporation.

NickelX (ASX:NKL) – pending an update to the market in respect of the option agreement the Company previously announced regarding the Ransko and Otov exploration projects.

Galena Mining (ASX:G1A) –  pending an announcement regarding a strategic review of operations.

Worley (ASX:WOR) – pending a clarificatory announcement to the market.

 

 

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