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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to 17 May, 2024 – an important day in history of the world, for a few different reasons.

It’s a big date for lovers of all things war, as this time of year was peak warfare season in Europe, by the looks of things.

On this day in 1689, English King William III declared war on France as a show of support for the Dutch, kicking off the 9 Years War.

On this day in 1742, the Battle of Chotusitz took place, and was won by Frederick the Great’s Prussian team, beating Austria 5-4 thanks to a late beheading deep into injury time.

On this day in 1744, the French army took the Austrian Netherlands… the book I’m reading doesn’t say where, though.

On this day in 1756, Britain declared war on France, kicking off the 7 Years War, which was pretty much the same as the 9 Years War, but a bit shorter.

There’s heaps more war stuff, but I’m already bored of it, so… this was also a bad day in the history of literature, as it was on this day in 1824 that six of Lord Byron’s so-called “friends” burnt his diaries in what has been described as “the greatest crime in literary history”.

But in better news, it was on this day in 1713 that Italian composer Vivaldi debuted his first opera at Teatro delle Grazie in Vicenza. The opera was called “Ottone in villa”, which translates in modern parlance to “Brass in da House”.

Happily, you won’t need to be a maestro to understand what’s coming up on the market today, as our team’s done the hard yards and the heavy lifting for you already.

To get you started this morning, Christian’s put his ear to the oracle and heard 900-year-old billionaire Warren Buffett croaking out a closely-guarded secret to his portfolio’s success.

Cam’s gone to Argentina to hang with Old Mate Milei and his hair to bring you the skinny on why it’s suddenly the ace-est place to be an ASX miner setting up.

And I’ve managed to ignore my new gaming setup all afternoon, so I can bring you all the data and digits and highlights listed below to help prep you for the day ahead.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,388.11 (-0.07%)

Silver: US$29.55 (-0.57%)

Nickel (3mth): US$18,936.00/t (+0.16%)

Copper (3mth): US$10,220.30/t (+2.11%)

Zinc: US$2,935.65/t (+0.62%)

Oil (WTI): US$79.03 (+0.19%)

Oil (Brent): US$83.10 (+0.24%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$116.65/t (0.00%)

AUD/USD: 0.6681 (-0.25%)

Bitcoin: US$65,810.20 (-0.66%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Guy le Page is getting hot under the copper again… here’s his latest pearls of wisdom.

Renegade Exploration ( #ASX : $RNX ) is another #copper hopeful chasing glory in the prolific Cloncurry district of #Queensland. | #criticalminerals https://t.co/BhyzBafst4

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) May 15, 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
TD1	Tali Digital Limited	0.002	100%	927,969	$3,295,156
HLX	Helix Resources	0.005	67%	11,443,231	$6,969,438
ILT	Iltani Resources Lim	0.320	64%	789,461	$6,632,048
ME1	Melodiol Glb Health	0.003	50%	2,450,316	$1,426,974
SIH	Sihayo Gold Limited	0.003	50%	57,100,298	$24,408,512
RGL	Riversgold	0.010	43%	23,310,659	$6,773,630
EMS	Eastern Metals	0.049	36%	8,924,828	$2,967,345
ENT	Enterprise Metals	0.004	33%	428,905	$2,654,163
IEC	Intra Energy Corp	0.002	33%	28,500,001	$2,536,172
KPO	Kalina Power Limited	0.004	33%	3,141,048	$7,459,182
VPR	Volt Power Group	0.002	33%	300,000	$16,074,312
NTL	New Talisman Gold	0.020	33%	382,012	$6,622,943
ION	Iondrive Limited	0.012	33%	5,891,591	$4,376,568
SS1	Sun Silver Limited	0.565	33%	10,452,241	$29,613,575
SER	Strategic Energy	0.013	30%	12,160,284	$4,858,151
ERW	Errawarra Resources	0.175	25%	7,829,617	$13,428,894
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.003	25%	61,875	$2,117,999
MSG	Mcs Services Limited	0.005	25%	1,000,000	$792,399
SHO	Sportshero Ltd	0.005	25%	8,511,470	$2,471,331
SIT	Site Group Int Ltd	0.003	25%	1,000,000	$5,204,980
BM8	Battery Age Minerals	0.130	24%	507,094	$9,634,833
AGC	AGC Ltd	0.300	22%	10,901,948	$54,444,444
PGD	Peregrine Gold	0.305	22%	315,462	$16,969,605
INP	Incentiapay Ltd	0.006	20%	236,870	$6,219,650
NRZ	Neurizer Ltd	0.003	20%	1,530,322	$4,134,896

Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Market newbie Sun Silver (ASX:SS1) was continuing its run on the heels of Wednesday’s excellent debut, with investors continuing to pile on through Thursday, pushing its price higher by another +20%.

Likewise, investors were still pumped about Australian Gold and Copper’s (ASX:AGC) lab-breakingly dense silver discovery at its Achilles project, with intercepts in excess of 3,000g/t Ag that needed to be sent overseas because the local machines took one look and broke down crying.

Errawarra Resources (ASX:ERW) continues to be extremely buoyant despite repeated queries from the ASX asking for an explanation as to why the stock is so popular at the moment, in the absence of any market sensitive news.

And if you needed another indicator at just how hot copper is as a commodity right now, Helix Resources (ASX:HLX) was up quite a long way this morning after revealing to the market that a frill campaign has commenced to test a “highest priority” geophysics anomaly at the Canbelego copper project.

Junior explorer Riversgold (ASX:RGL) has all its golden ducks lined up at its highly prospective Northern Zone gold project, about 25km east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. More specifically, it has the drill rigs contracted (one reverse circulation, the other air core) and ready to spin hard into some hard rock next week. Earlier in the week, the company announced a placement of $1.85 million to help fund the step-out drilling program at the project, where its aim is to define a maiden, JORC-compliant gold resource.

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
PIL	Peppermint Inv Ltd	0.009	-40%	55,980,114	$31,820,375
CGO	CPT Global Limited	0.110	-35%	11,395	$7,122,552
ICE	Icetana Limited	0.018	-33%	60,000	$7,144,968
AHN	Athena Resources	0.002	-33%	10,000	$3,211,403
CNJ	Conico Ltd	0.001	-33%	313,085	$2,707,643
MRQ	Mrg Metals Limited	0.001	-33%	92,338	$3,787,678
WLD	Wellard Limited	0.027	-29%	73,000	$20,187,512
CUL	Cullen Resources	0.006	-25%	1,409,090	$4,561,386
LNU	Linius Tech Limited	0.002	-25%	3,583,856	$11,093,481
M2M	Mtmalcolmminesnl	0.014	-22%	389,311	$3,149,561
NAC	Naos Ex-50	0.550	-21%	513,481	$30,044,510
ADY	Admiralty Resources.	0.011	-21%	935,643	$22,812,635
EXL	Elixinol Wellness	0.004	-20%	5,118	$6,505,370
WOA	Wide Open Agricultur	0.021	-19%	10,939,206	$4,654,609
BGE	Bridgesaaslimited	0.022	-19%	270,000	$3,223,721
FGL	Frugl Group Limited	0.085	-17%	10,000	$10,180,128
1MC	Morella Corporation	0.003	-17%	13,268,864	$18,536,398
CAV	Carnavale Resources	0.005	-17%	3,333,333	$20,541,310
GBZ	GBM Rsources Ltd	0.010	-17%	153,900	$13,880,267
PRX	Prodigy Gold NL	0.003	-17%	421,334	$6,041,322
T92	Terrauraniumlimited	0.110	-15%	359,883	$7,814,921
ODY	Odyssey Gold Ltd	0.022	-15%	154,158	$23,370,649
CLU	Cluey Ltd	0.068	-15%	5,000	$16,129,085
VBS	Vectus Biosystems	0.200	-15%	50	$12,504,200