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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to 15 May, 2024 – an important day in history of not agreeing with the Catholic Church.

That’s because on this day in 1252, Pope Innocent IV issued the Papal Bull entitled Ad extirpanda, which authorised the use of torture by Inquisitors against anyone accused of heresy, because that’s what Jesus would do.

Pope Innocent IV, as an aside, was born Sinibaldo Fieschi, and was a member of the prominent Fieschi family of Genoa that claimed direct descendence from the the counts of Lavagna.

The counts of Lavagna rose to fame as early celebrity chefs, whose gift to Italian cuisine has been overshadowed by that of the counts of Lasagna.

The latter took the original dish, known as Lavagna, and improved upon it by layering their creation horizontally, rather than the far less consumer-friendly vertical version which was, and still is, a culinary sh-tshow.

But I digress.

Pope Innocent IV’s Ad extirpanda contains a well thought out treatise on the manner in which heretics could be tortured, summarised as three basic rules, with a late hastily-scribbled note in the margin that baffled scholars for centuries.

The three rules said:

The torture method used must not cause loss of life or limb;
Any method employed must only be used once per person; and
The Inquisitor needed to be really certain of the evidence before any torture began.

The scrawled note in the margin, which reads “Cruciatus numquam musicam Caelinii Dyonisi comprehendere debet!” had papal scholars utterly confounded for hundreds of years, until it was finally decoded by a Cistercian monk in 1998.

While investigating the apparent suicide of a fellow monk at the famous cliffside Ostrog Monastery in Montenegro, Brother Armand Jean le Bouthillier found a turntable hidden beneath the floorboards of the dead man’s room.

On it was a 12-inch single of I Will Always Love You and – upon seeing “Celine Dion” named as the artist responsible, everything “clicked into place”, and Pope Innocent IV’s remarkably prescient papal decree outlining the use of the French Canadian songstress’ bleatings and warblings have since been lauded as “divinely inspired” by believers and heretics alike.

Luckily for you, we’re not going to make you listen to a single note of Celine Dion’s work this morning. Instead, we are politely inviting you to read our own divinely inspired wisdom this morning, as penned by the oracles that haunt the hallowed Stockhead halls.

That includes Part 1 of Christian “Chedward” Edwards’ deep dive into why the ASX’s bloodsucking pathology stocks are grossly undervalued, and Cam Drummond’s look into who’s movin’ and shakin’ like a Carnivale dancer in Brazil’s blistering lithium scene.

And obviously we’ve got all the good news for miners out of last night’s Budget. There was some.

Plus, because – and I’m as shocked as you are about this – I have nothing better to do on a Tuesday evening, I’m sat here at my laptop furiously pasting in all the data and digits and highlights listed below to help prep you for the day ahead.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,339.10 (+0.11%)

Silver: US$28.35 (+0.51%)

Nickel (3mth): US$19,142.30/t (+1.25%)

Copper (3mth): US$10,161.26/t (+0.64%)

Zinc: US$2,929.75/t (+0.58%)

Oil (WTI): US$78.58 (-0.67%)

Oil (Brent): US$83.31 (-0.05%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$117.31/t (+0.32%)

AUD/USD: 0.6604 (+0.01%)

Bitcoin: US$61,860.70 (-1.71%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Our resident expert on all things China, the inimitable Christian Edwards, posits the question of whether there’s actually a bull on the loose in the Great China Shop… read it now, if you missed it yesterday.

Hong Kong #stocks are up 7% in May, a Chinese #EV maker #IPO‘d on Wall St at +33% and frankly, this is a huge week for China, the US and us. 🇭🇰 🇨🇳 🇺🇸 🇦🇺 https://t.co/3Sk2iYwi2d

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) May 13, 2024

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
AVW	Avira Resources Ltd	0.002	100%	1,000,000	$2,663,790
JTL	Jayex Technology Ltd	0.002	100%	1,332,885	$281,279
1MC	Morella Corporation	0.003	50%	20,495,134	$12,357,599
JAV	Javelin Minerals Ltd	0.002	50%	550,894	$2,176,231
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.002	50%	514,275	$2,525,119
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.003	50%	650,412	$12,394,892
VPR	Volt Power Group	0.002	50%	9,282,602	$10,716,208
CCZ	Castillo Copper Ltd	0.007	40%	8,919,183	$6,497,527
JPR	Jupiter Energy	0.025	39%	240,342	$22,925,739
NKL	Nickelxltd	0.025	39%	196,169	$1,580,673
LSR	Lodestar Minerals	0.002	33%	1,442,500	$3,035,096
VML	Vital Metals Limited	0.004	33%	527,492	$17,685,201
IS3	I Synergy Group Ltd	0.009	29%	1,650,000	$2,128,563
TG1	Techgen Metals Ltd	0.051	28%	13,835,888	$5,125,303
ICL	Iceni Gold	0.089	25%	2,486,165	$17,505,835
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.003	25%	200,000	$2,117,999
CUF	Cufe Ltd	0.020	25%	19,001,748	$18,337,798
FAU	First Au Ltd	0.005	25%	143,572,251	$6,647,973
MHC	Manhattan Corp Ltd	0.003	25%	1,380,651	$5,873,960
PUA	Peak Minerals Ltd	0.005	25%	13,036,536	$4,165,506
ROG	Red Sky Energy.	0.005	25%	10,345,145	$21,688,909
TMR	Tempus Resources Ltd	0.005	25%	521,575	$2,923,995
AVM	Advance Metals Ltd	0.028	22%	36,000	$1,048,747
BDX	Bcaldiagnostics	0.120	20%	681,233	$25,229,471
AER	Aeeris Ltd	0.078	20%	61,009	$4,745,901

Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

TechGen Metals (ASX:TG1) was up on news that the company has expanded its portfolio to include “a highly prospective copper and gold project in Western Australia”. Techgen has snapped up the Blue Devil project, located 45km east northeast of Halls Creek in Western Australia and accessible through station and exploration tracks, for “minimal outlay”, after previous exploration at the site by Spartan Exploration returned some promising rock chip samples, above 1% Cu with a peak of 50.5% Cu.

It’s a timely purchase, as copper prices ticked back over US$10,000 a tonne overnight – which was also great news for Castillo Copper (ASX:CCZ) , which was up on news of plans to develop its Big One deposit in the Mt Isa copper belt. Located within CCZ’s prime NWQ Copper Project, the Big One Deposit has a JORC compliant Mineral Resource Estimate of 2.1Mt @ 1.1% Cu for 21,886t contained metal2, including 40m @ 1.64% from surface incl: 11m @ 4.40% from 24m, 5m @ 7.34% from 28m & 1m @ 16.65% from 29m, and 44m @ 1.19% Cu from surface incl: 14m @ 3.55% from 27m, 3m @ 10.88% from 37m & 1m @ 12.6% from 37m.

In more copper news, Stavely Minerals (ASX:SVY) was up after announcing that re-interpretation of historic and more recent drilling at the company’s Junction prospect has identified an immediate shallow discovery opportunity. Stavely says copper-gold-silver lode-style mineralisation intersected previously at Junction includes chalcopyrite, bornite and covellite and is very similar to the mineralisation at its 9.3Mt at 1.23% Cu, 0.23g/t Au, 7g/t Ag Cayley Lode.

Rincon Resources (ASX:RCR) was on the rise again after dramatically peaking and selling off about a week or so ago. The critical metals (REEs, niobium, copper, gold) junior was up today after revealing that a Heritage clearance survey over its high-priority ‘Avalon’ Nb-REE/IOCG target has now been completed. The survey encompassed the Avalon, Sheoak, K1 and K2 target areas, with 32 drilling traverses surveyed, allowing Rincon to fast-track additional drilling programs in the event of early success.

Junior gold explorer, First Au (ASX:FAU), has made a solid gain amid high trading volume. Something’s going on – investors might know, but here’s what we know. It’s a management/boardroom shuffle situation. Why that’s got investors frothing, though, is as yet not entirely clear. The company has announced the resignation of its current CEO and MD Ryan Skeen, which will take effect at the conclusion of FAU’s AGM on Thursday this week.

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
ADS	Adslot Ltd.	0.002	-33%	2,683,241	$9,673,487
APC	Aust Potash Ltd	0.001	-33%	240,087	$6,000,284
TMK	TMK Energy Limited	0.003	-25%	617,908	$27,646,448
SP8	Streamplay Studio	0.007	-22%	503,394	$10,355,614
AXI	Axiom Properties	0.043	-22%	196,486	$23,799,251
AL8	Alderan Resource Ltd	0.004	-20%	1,230,000	$5,534,307
CRB	Carbine Resources	0.004	-20%	15,792	$2,758,689
EXL	Elixinol Wellness	0.004	-20%	658,281	$6,505,370
SIH	Sihayo Gold Limited	0.002	-20%	60,771,461	$30,510,640
TIG	Tigers Realm Coal	0.004	-20%	313,695	$65,333,512
WMG	Western Mines	0.310	-17%	568,081	$28,394,318
PVW	PVW Res Ltd	0.025	-17%	1,150,004	$3,042,143
Z2U	Zoom2Utechnologies	0.075	-17%	119,309	$17,440,733
AEV	Avenira Limited	0.005	-17%	21,206,994	$14,094,204
IVX	Invion Ltd	0.005	-17%	220,583	$38,547,193
LNR	Lanthanein Resources	0.005	-17%	59,727,153	$11,729,453
ME1	Melodiol Glb Health	0.003	-17%	1,601,655	$2,140,462
MSG	Mcs Services Limited	0.005	-17%	74,626	$1,188,598
NAG	Nagambie Resources	0.010	-17%	1,933,848	$9,559,628
PRX	Prodigy Gold NL	0.003	-17%	218,999	$6,041,322
M4M	Macro Metals Limited	0.036	-16%	36,682,414	$138,978,871
TRU	Truscreen	0.017	-15%	215,566	$11,051,822
WEC	White Energy	0.035	-15%	499,096	$4,642,694
CCM	Cadoux Limited	0.060	-14%	835,706	$25,964,231