Good morning everyone, and welcome to 15 January, 2024 – a date in history that has so many remarkable moments, it’s impossible to choose just one worth mentioning.

So… here goes a bit of a lightning round historical wrap-up – but just the good bits, I promise.

On this day in 1759, the British Museum first opened its doors to the public, putting on a display consisting of so many clearly stolen items from all around the world, it’s a deadset miracle no one called the cops.

Some folks eventually did, in a manner of speaking… but the museum is now widely criticised for its stubborn refusal to return some pretty important things to their rightful owners, hiding behind a hugely convenient British law that forbids the return of purloined antiquities.

In 1844, the University of Notre Dame received its charter in Indiana, paving the way for disfigured hunchbacks from around the world to earn a proper Masters degree in the dual fields of bell-ringing and arson.

It’s also a huge date for cricket lovers… in 1895, Aussie spinner Albert Trott took an incredible 8-43 on debut to end England’s 2nd innings at 143 in Third Test in Adelaide.

Then, in 1930 the incomparable West Indian master George Headley made his presence known on debut, firing off a Big Bash-worthy 157 off 176 on debut on the Day 4 of the First Test against England in Bridgetown.

The good people of Boston weathered a shocker of a day in 1919, when the Great Molasses Flood – which is exactly what it sounds like – struck the city, killing 19 and making another 150 people very sticky.

That took place when a 2 million gallon storage tank ruptured, sending a wave of molasses very slowly (I assume) through the city.

But on a happier food-related note, the people of Amsterdam remember this date in history quite fondly, as it was on 15 January, in 1945, that every single person in the city was given 3 kilos of sugar beets for some unfathomable reason.

And so, with your head still spinning with all that new-found knowledge, it’s time to get prepped for the ASX day ahead.

There’s all the data and digits and letter and numbers and punctuation you could ask for, to help paint a glorious picture of what’s in store today.

You are welcome.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,048.92 (+1.03%)

Silver: US$23.19 (+1.32%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,072.80/t (-1.03%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,299.80/t (-0.37%)

Oil (WTI): US$72.79 (-0.08%)

Oil (Brent): US$78.32 (-0.20%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$137.22/t (-1.19%)

AUD/USD: 0.6686 (-0.19%)

Bitcoin: US$42,975.70 (+0.32%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Nadine “Nads” McGrath has been on the blower to resident health expert Scott Power again… here’s what they got to chatting about.

 

 

 

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:

A lot of the day’s early leaders were making headway thanks to market conditions and commodity price movement, leaving Lodestar Minerals (ASX:LSR) out in front on a no-news Friday for the company.

However, in amongst the winners list there were a handful of noteworthy mentions, including Duketon Mining (ASX:DKM) with a 16% lift off the back of an upbeat quarterly, showing that the company is still beavering away at its Tate Prospect, located north of the Duketon Greenstone Belt – and that there’s still money in the bank to keep the hunt going for a while yet.

And 88 Energy (ASX:88E) dropped a flow-test update on the market news list, letting everyone know that things are full steam ahead for the Hickory-1 discovery well next month.

There’s still the small matter of building an ice road, well pad and getting the rig out to the site to deal with, but the company sounds pretty positive that things are all on track.

By the end of play, Singular Health (ASX:SHG) had risen to the top of the ladder, on news that it has received its first binding enterprise licence order for 5,000 annual licences of the 3Dicom Patient software in the US.

What it means in essence, is that a small number of US military veterans are now able to access their medical records digitally, rather than having to order (and wait for) a hard copy – which is a massive step forward for them.

Details of the enterprise sale are “commercial-in-confidence”, but SHG says revenue generated from this order “exceeds the total direct-to-consumer sales of the 3Dicom software in 2023 of ~A$50,000 by more than 40%”.

Which means, if I’m reading this correctly, this is an enormous jump for Singular – it’s up 110% for the week, adding close to $7 million in market cap off the back of a $70k contract.

Uranium player Basin Energy (ASX:BSN) saw a late rise as well, up a tidy 24% and climbing along with the rest of the uranium market as interest in yellowcake booms this week.

That’s off the back of a recent decision by the US Department of Energy (DOE) that it was exploring domestic supply of an enriched uranium fuel to reduce its reliance on Russian supplies, which has re-lit the fuse under local uranium players as well.

And CZR Resources (ASX:CZR) is sailing again on the back of news yesterday of the $102m sale of its Robe Mesa iron ore project in the Pilbara to a Chinese buyer, which will see CZR bank double its pre-bid market cap in cash.

The buyer is Miracle Iron, which will pay a combined $122m to secure Strike Resources’ (ASX:SRK) Paulsens East project, which was briefly mined and shipped through the junior Utah Point Facility in Port Hedland a couple years ago, and CZR’s larger 33Mt Robe Mesa, an extension of Rio Tinto’s (ASX:RIO) Mesa F deposit at its Robe River JV.

 

FRIDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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TRADING HALTS

There weren’t any, at all – third time in about a week that’s happened, and I’m starting to think that they’re going out of fashion.

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